Revenge is Sweet
by ALTN101
Summary: It's been a year and a half and Conan wants more than anything to return to being Kudou Shinichi and take down the Black Organization. A story were Shinichi shows the Organization that they should never mess with a Kudou and were Kaitou Kid helps Shinichi? [This is going to have some Shinran moments but I'm intending to make it Shinkai/kaishin, so be warned before you read!]
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

* * *

 _It's_ _been_ _nearly_ _more_ _than_ _a_ _year_ _now_ she sadly mused to herself, wondering if he would ever fulfill his promise to her that he would return someday once he was finished with his case. Always using the same excuse over and over again every time he called her. A sad smile accommodated worried and sorrowful eyes as she turned away from the phone that sat innocently on her father's desk as if it hadn't been another reminder to her that her childhood friend had been 'missing' for over a year. Yes, he had just called her to let her know he was still alive and well, but that did little to ease away the pain she felt that was slowly suffocating her as time passed by. Wishing upon every star in hopes that the next time he shows up, that he would actually stay for good, not having to suddenly run away again and disappear somewhere only to call every once in a blue moon.

Suddenly the sound of a door creaking open brought the teenage girl out of her melancholy reverie. Turning around she smiled at the small child that had just entered the room. As he stepped into the room he noticed that Ran looked like she was nearing tears. Strange he thought, _usually_ _when_ _I_ _call_ _her_ _she_ _would_ _only_ _get_ _really_ _angry_ _that_ _I'm_ _still_ _working_ _on_ _some_ _'case'_. Worried for his childhood friend, the teenager turned child asked "Ran-neechan, are you okay?" He tried to mustered up as much childlike innocence he could into the tone and looked up at her with equally childlike innocence, worry, and curiosity as he could into his expression. _Conan-kun_ _has_ _always_ _been_ _here for me whenever I feel down doesn't he. I feel like I had to lose a friend to gain such a nice little brother_ , her subconscious thought ran through her mind. Ran allowed herself a small smile before she wiped her eyes and nodded.

"There's no need to worry Conan-kun, I'm okay" she said giving him another smile although this one seemed more forced. Not convinced in the least bit, Conan gave her a reassuring smile before he looked her in the eye, face allr void of emotion but the sadness and worry that shined in his eyes. He walked up to her and looked up at her again. Shaking his head he said "Ran-neechan, it's okay to cry sometimes you know. I bet it was Shinichi-niichan who is making you sad again isn't he. I don't like seeing you sad like this, when Shinichi-niichan gets back I'll have to reprimand him for leaving you for so long and making you sad all the time." Ran had to admire her adopted little brother as he said this with all seriousness and determination. Bending down to scoop Conan in a tight hug, she said softly and quietly "thank you Conan-kun, sometimes I don't know what to do without you. You always seem to know how to make me feel better." With that, Ran gave Conan another tight squeeze and set out to make dinner, this time with a small genuine smile that played gracefully across her lips.

Watching his childhood friend go out the door and into their living space a few flight of stairs above, a grim expression crossed his face. _If only you knew I'm the one hurting you as well,_ he thought melancholy. Slowly he made his way to follow Ran into their living space and as he passed the kitchen only one thought crossed his mind. He _had_ to return to being Kudou Shinichi soon.

Heaving a heavy sigh as he sat on the couch with a detective book in hand, he opened the book and tried to read it to distract himself but try as he might he just couldn't focus on it. His mind kept wandering back to Ran and how he might never return to his original body if Haibara is unable to come up with a permanent antidote. _Maybe I should talk to Haibara tomorrow and ask her on her progress for the APTX 4869 antidote,_ Conan thought himself with a firm nod before continuing to distract himself in the mystery novel once again.

Just as he was able to immerse himself into the world the book offered to him, he was thrown back into reality when Ran called out that dinner was ready. Sighing again, he close the book and set it down on the couch trudging slowly to the table and sat down on one of the cushions. He had noticed that the 'man' of the house, Mouri Kogoro, wasn't home when he got back; assuming he was out investigating on some small case, or he could be out drinking and gambling again. With a deadpan expression he thought _that old man really is hopeless_. Looking up at Ran he gave a cheery smile and said in a voice of innocent childish curiosity "Ran-neechan? Where's Ot-chan?"

"Dad got a call earlier for a case, he didn't explain what it was though. He just left in a hurry and told me not to worry about keeping his dinner warm for him."

"Maybe some 'pretty' lady asked him to find her cat for her" Conan suggested with a playful smile. Ran let out a soft giggle as she said "that would most likely explain why he said not to keep and food left waiting for him."

Throughout dinner time they just laugh and talked forgetting about their worries. When they had finished eating, Ran had went to wash the dishes as Conan returned to the couch to attempt reading the book again. This time he had no qualms in immersing himself in the book now that he was in a much better mood than he had been prior to that afternoon.

"Conan-kun, it's nearly time for bed" Ran said walking over to the couch where Conan sat reading his book. He gave a slight nod indicating that he heard her and continued reading. Seeing that Ran smiled gently and grabbed the book from Conan.

"Bedtime!" She said sternly when Conan began to protest. Giving Ran a childish pout he slowly got up from the couch and dragged his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Sighing as she watch the scene unfold before her, she muttered to herself, "he can really act his age at times huh? Sometimes I forget that he is a child due to how mature he seems. But I guess he really is a kid after all." She allowed herself another small smile before she set to clean up the house and check all the doors and windows before heading to bed.

Mouri Kogoro didn't come home until two in the morning. Earlier that day, some beautiful woman had ask him to help her find her pet parakeet. It took awhile but he had manage to find the bird which had flown out of its cage and into the neighbor's yard. She had been so grateful that she had offered to buy him dinner and drinks. Of course, he wouldn't refuse such an offer, so he delightedly and immediately agreed. Tiredly and drunkenly, he stumbled into the room and staggered to the bed - nearly missing stepping on Conan who was sleeping on a futon in the shared room ever since he had taken in Conan in a year and a half ago - falling asleep the moment his head had hit the pillow.

* * *

A/N: In this story, I'm having Conan/Shinichi around 7/17 years old because according to this story line he shrunk sometime during the beginning of his sophomore year when he was 16 years old. Almost everything else in this universe is going to be from the manga and anime canon. Anyway this is only the first chapter so not much happened but it'll progress over time as I upload more chapters. Enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

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Conan woke up the next morning to loud sounds of snoring near by. _Looks like Ot-chan made it back last night_ he thought with a grumpy deadpan. Rapidly blinking his eyes to get the sleep out of it, he slowly dragged himself out of the futon and into the bathroom. Looking at the clock in the bathroom, it indicated that it was around 8:00 AM. Since it was a Saturday and he didn't have school today he decided that he could probably go over to Professor Agasa's house and talk to Haibara about the antidote today. Picking up the stepping stool he moved it over to the sink to begin his morning routine.

"I can't wait until I get my real body back," he grumbled under his breath as he brushed his teeth. _At least then I don't have to use a frickin stool just to brush my teeth and wash my face!_ He thought bitterly as he rinsed out his mouth and grabbed a towel to wash his face. Heaving a sigh before he got off the stool to put it back, he gave the boy in the mirror one last glare and walked out the bathroom.

Ran was in the kitchen preparing breakfast when he had gotten to the couch where the book he was reading the night before was left. He picked up the book and put it back in the book shelf deciding that he was in no mood to read. Instead he headed to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

"Morning Conan-kun, breakfast is almost ready so just wait a little longer okay," Ran said as she spotted Conan walking in.

"Mmm, hey Ran-neechan, can I have some water?" Conan asked, as he couldn't reach the cabinet were the cups were kept. Ran nodded and told him to give her a minute to finish with the omurice that she was making. Setting the dishes of food aside Ran turned to fill a cup of water for Conan.

"Thank you Ran-neechan," he said cheerily as he took the cup from her. Carrying the cup back to the couch he just glared at it. All facade of happiness faded from his usual childlike cheer he had incorporated into the character that was known as Edogawa Conan. _Damn Organization, Damn Poison, Damn Evil Scientist, and Damn Miniature Useless Body!_ He bitterly thought as he fixed his glare at the ceiling. Conan was so deep in his angry monologue that he didn't hear Ran calling him for breakfast after she had successfully dragged her father out of his bed and practically threw him at the dining table.

"Serves you right for being out late and drinking again" she scolded scowling at her father. Shaking her head she sighed and called Conan to come eat breakfast.

"Conan-kun come eat." She called. When Conan didn't answer her right away she turned to see Conan giving the ceiling a death glare. Wondering what was wrong, Ran walked over to Conan shaking his shoulder a little and asked "Conan-kun, are you okay?" He blinked once and then again, snapping out of his trance and turned to looked back at Ran, giving her a blank look before what she said had registered in his head.

He offered a small smile before reassuring her that he was fine; then he attempted to make his way to the table set with their breakfast. Not convinced of this, Ran blocked his way and and knelt down so she was eye level with him. Conan tried for another cheery smile before saying "Ran-neechan, I'm fine really, there's nothing to worry about. I was just thinking if I could go to Professor Agasa's house today to play some new game he invented. That's all, I'm really fine."

 _Liar_ , his subconscious scolded him. He looked at Ran with bright blue sapphire like eyes and smile brightly at her. Ran narrowed her eyes but nodded at his excuse anyway. Standing up and moving back to the breakfast table she said "as long as you finish your breakfast and you don't stay out too late then it's okay. Also called Professor Agasa before you go and call me when you're coming back. You got that Conan-kun?"

"Yes Ran-neechan!" Conan said brightly as he skipped to the breakfast table and wolfed down his breakfast. He really wanted to hurry and see how Haibara was progressing with the APTX antidote.

Sitting down at the table, Conan began wolfing down his breakfast. Looking up from his own breakfast plate, Kogoro grumbled, "hey brat! Slow down before you choke on your food, I don't want to be responsible for having to pay your medical bill for that."

"Dad!" Ran scolded him, "but he is right Conan-kun, slow down a little."

"But I want to hurry up and play Professor Agasa's new game!" He said in the most excitable childish voice he could muster.

"Che, kids," Kogoro grumbled continuing on with his breakfast.

"Ran-neechan, I finished! Can I go now?" Coan asked bouncing up and down in his seat. Ran seemed hesitant for a second, but she smiled and nodded.

"Be back before dinner time" Ran called out after Conan as he ran out the door and down the flight of stairs. _I can't believe I ever thought that Conan-kun and Shinichi were ever the same person,_ Ran thought to herself as she started on washing up the dishes.

Conan rounded the corner as he dashed around the corner slowing down to a speed walk as he headed toward the Professor's house. He arrived there some 15 minutes later and immediately made his way down the pathway and rang the doorbell. _Come on Haibara, Hakase, open up!_ Conan thought impatiently as he rang the doorbell again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," muttered Haibara as she got up from the kitchen table where she and the Professor were having breakfast. When she opened the door, if she was surprised to see Conan there she didn't show it, hiding it behind her usual cool and aloof demeanor. Frowning a little she allowed him entranced to the house and grumbled "what are you doing here."

"To discuss something with you," Conan said with a bright smile. Haibara only gave him a deadpan expression in return.

"Ai-kun, who is it?" Asked Professor Agasa as he came near the entrance of his home. When he saw Conan, he smiled, "oh, Shinichi! Good to see you! Come in and join us, we were just having breakfast."

"Ah, thanks Professor, but Ran already made me eat before I came over." Conan explained as he and the others walked further into the large house.

"And to what special occasion do we owe the presence of the great detective Kudou-kun?" Haibara said once they had finished their breakfast and were seated on the Professor's couch.

"Do I need an excuse to visit?" Conan deadpanned. Haibara gave him a sharp glare before she said "you would if you said it was something you wanted to discuss to me about." She gave him a condescending glare and then quirked up a well manicured eyebrow as a thought occurred to her.

"Did you find some more information on the Black Organization? Or does this have to do with the APTX antidote?"

She got her answer when Conan let out a small 'geh' at her second question. "Bingo" she muttered and fixed him with an unreadable gaze.

"Come on, Haibara I just want to know how you're progressing with it. I mean it's practically been a year since you came up with the antidote; even if it was a prototype." Conan sent her a pleading look. She only shook her head.

"Kudou-kun, genius takes time you know. I'm not magical, I can't just whipped up and conjure the Apotoxin Antidote out of thin air. Just give me more time to come up with a longer lasting antidote. Besides, even if I do end up coming up with a full antidote, there's still the organization to deal with. You're in danger the moment you come back to being Kudou Shinichi."

"But when we take down the organization, I'm useless in this body. I have a better chance in taking the organization down in my original body." Conan argued.

"Yes, because you did so well the first time and got yourself stuck in a child's body!" Haibara shot him another glare.

"Now, now, Ai-kun, that was a bit harsh don't you think?" The Professor said trying to ease the tension between the two.

"No Professor, Haibara is right; it was my fault for running into that alleyway and spying on them that day." Conan said looking down on the ground not meeting anyone in the eye. His bangs cover his eyes as he continued to stare at the ground. Then after several tense minutes, he snapped his head up with new determination in his bright blue eyes and said "yeah, it may have been my fault, but that's the more reason why I should prove that I'm not someone who they could erase so easily! I'll show them what's like to mess with me. Besides I'm not a Kudou for nothing. Just think of what I can do to drive them crazy."

At this Professor Agasa sweat dropped, he knew the kinds of pranks Shinichi's parents could come up with. Haibara had to hide the small amused smile that began to creep along her lips. Nodding her head in comprehension, she looked Conan straight in the eye in all seriousness, "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into. But okay, I'll work on another prototype and see if I can make it last more more than two days; since that was the time limit for the first prototype considering it shortened every time you took it afterwards. If I can find a way to fix that, then perhaps I can make it permanent." She said the last part more to herself than the other occupants in the room. Hearing that Conan brightened up considerably and gave a genuine happy smile.

"To warn you though, there is no guarantee that it will actually work or if I'll actually be able to do this." Haibara said as a forewarning not wanting to raise Conan's hope up too much.

"As long as you can come up with something." Conan said giving her a reassuring smile. Haibara nodded again and excused herself to go to her lab, there were somethings that she wanted to look over since the thoughts were still fresh in her mind. Conan watched her go into the lab and then he sank back down on the couch, all signs of a smile disappeared and replaced by a frown instead.

"Shinichi, are you okay?" Professor Agasa asked. Conan just shook his head.

"I want my life back Professor, they took away everything from me the moment that bastard Gin poisoned me." He grounded the words out bitterly.

Haibara didn't come out of her lab until some three or four hours later and found Conan sleeping on the couch. The Professor had left to go into his mechanic lab probably working on some new experiment. Just then, the phone rang. Sighing, Haibara went to pick it up.

"Hello?" She said into the receiver.

 _"Ah! Ai-chan! We're going to park tomorrow to play with Mitshuhiko-kun's new basketball tomorrow, do you want to come with us? Also can you tell Conan-kun too? I called the detective agency earlier and Ran-Oneesan said Conan-kun was there." Ayumi babbled excitedly on the other end of the receiver._

"That does sound like fun Yoshida-san, but I'm a bit busy for the time being, maybe next time okay? And as for Edogawa-kun, how about I let him answer if he could go or not." She said with a smirk as she made her way to the couch.

Conan had already woken up and was staring at his phone screen when she got there. Looking up from the screen, he gave her a nod of acknowledgement before returning his eyes to the screen.

"Yoshida-san wishes to speak to the resident great detective." She said thrusting the phone in front of his face.

"Mm busy," he mumbled before looking at his phone's screen once again. Covering the handphone's speaker so Ayumi couldn't hear their conversation she nodded towards the cellphone in his hands, "that's your other phone right? Is something wrong? Is it important?"

"Somewhat," Conan mumbled again. The he looked up and said "just tell her I'm busy or something."

"Nope, I'll give you the honor of doing that yourself Mr. Modern Day Sherlock Holmes." With that Haibara removed her hand from the receiver and shoved the phone in Conan's face again.

Grumbling and giving Haibara the evil eye as she walked off probably to make lunch, he muttered into the receiver "hello."

 _"Conan-kun! What took you so long?" Ayumi complained._

"I was sleeping," he said rather grumpily.

 _"Geez Conan-kun, anyway I was going to ask if you could come with us to the park tomorrow. Mitshuhiko-kun got a brand new basketball from his aunt and we wanted to play with it. You're coming right Conan-kun?" She asked after her excited rambled once again._

"Actually, I'm busy tomorrow so I can't go." Conan said with an apologetic smile although she couldn't see it.

 _"Aww! Conan-kun you're not taking a case without us are you?" Conan could practically see Ayumi narrowing her eyes with suspicion at him._

"O- of course not!" Conan assured her.

 _"Hmm okay, but you better come play with us next time!" Ayumi said and hung up with a click._

"Those damn kids" he muttered sinking himself lower into the couch if that was even possible. After his silent moping, he got up sighing and went to put back the phone in its right place.

"You're not going?" Haibara asked amused as she fixed a salad in the kitchen. Conan shook his head in response. Then he saw the meal she had prepared and smirked.

"Is the Professor even going to eat all this healthy stuff?" He chuckled.

Haibara looked up momentarily and muttered "he'd better." Then, a little louder she added "you want to stay for lunch?"

"I suppose" Conan said with a shrug. Really though, he just wanted to see the Professor's reaction to lunch.

"In that case help me set the table" Haibara said handing Conan a set of plates and silverware. As she added the finishing touches to the caesar salad, Haibara inquired curiously, although she didn't show it in her tone, "who was that earlier? You seemed focused on the screen."

"Huh?" Conan blinked a few times at the question looking up at the ceiling before it registered to him.

"Oh, that it's nothing really. Just some code Ran wanted me, actually Shinichi, to decode."

"Hmm, so your girlfriend wants you to decode a code for her?" Haibara said smirking knowingly at Conan.

He turned to give her a scowl before muttering "she's not my girlfriend." Then turning his attention back to setting the table, he thought _I'm not so sure that I want Ran to be my girlfriend anymore actually. So much has changed; to Conan she's an older sister. Wait, does that mean that I see Ran as a sister? But, I...Do I? Do I still love her like that?_ Conan froze and stared at the table in his inner turmoil, wondering how he should act if Shinichi ever comes back or even if he temporarily comes back. _Ran…_ he thought sadly.

"Udou-kun, Kudou-kun," he heard Haibara calling him after he came to from his momentary reverie. Haibara gave him a questioning look, "what happened? Don't go off daydreaming on me." She narrowed her eyes at him although she could pretty much tell who he was thinking about just then.

He gave a sheepish smile muttering "sorry bout that." He said it somewhat absent mindedly. Haibara gave him another look that said she didn't believe him one bit. Raising his hands to his face and waving them, he tried to wave of her suspicious and possibly worried looked -he couldn't tell since it's Haibara he's dealing with, she would probably deny being worried- assuring her it's nothing.

"Really, I was just lost in thought, you know how much I want to return to being myself," he attempted for an excuse. Nodding in affirmation although she wasn't entirely convinced, she told him to help her bring the food to the table instead.

"Can you get the Professor from his lab?" Haibara asked placing the last of the meal she made on the table. Conan gave her a nod of confirmation and headed towards the Professor's lab.

"Hey Professor, lunch is ready" he said jerking his head towards the kitchen area. Professor Agasa hummed in acknowledgment before he looked up from his project. Conan gave it a scrutinizing stare before he inquired wearily "what is that?"

"A cream or some kind of gel that can burn through solid objects. I thought it might come in handy, although I don't know what you can use it for to be honest." He said sheepishly putting a hand behind his to scratch it.

"Hmm, that's neat, maybe if I'm tied up I can use something like that." Conan said with a mischievous smirk. Professor Agasa sweat dropped at that. Then he ushered Conan out to go eat lunch.

Once they had finished eating, which consists of a lot of complaints from Professor Agasa who receive a ton of death glares from Haibara and more threats of a diet; Conan decided to bid them goodbye and head back to the detective agency. On his way back, he used his _Shinichi_ phone to text Ran the decoded message.

 _-Ran, the note says that he will be stealing the Elven's Emerald at 8 PM tomorrow night from some guy called Suzuki.-_

As Conan was walking home, his phone buzzed indicating that he had just received a text message. Opening up his Shinichi phone again, he saw Ran's response. _-Ah that's right you've never met Sonoko's uncle. He's the one who challenge Kid to steal the jewel. Btw thanks Shinichi, the police said the note was so cryptic that they couldn't figure it out and they sent it to dad since the jewel is being displayed in Beika.-_

 _I already know that it's from Sonoko's uncle,_ Conan thought monotonously. _However, this should be interesting, Kid hasn't held a heist in Beika for a few months now._ Smirking to himself he sent Ran a reply text.

 _-Kid? That infamous thief who's also a magician? I remember passing by on one of his heist before. It was interesting.-_

 _-You've been to a Kid heist? Since when Shinichi?! If you have time to go to a thief's heist then you should have time to come back or at least visit more often!-_ Ran's reply came in less than a minute of his last text.

 _-Ah! That was before I got caught up in this case! It was nearly more than a year and a half ago really. About two years ago I think.-_ Conan frantically replied panicking and dying inside a little. He groaned internally, it's not like he wanted to shrink and disappear for a full year and a half.

 _-Speaking of cases, I have to get back to this case, I'm onto a possible lead. I'll see you Ran.-_ He sent her another text before pocketing the phone, not even wanting to see what Ran texted him. It would make him feel even more guilty if he looked at it now anyways. Heaving a long heavy sigh, he trudged back to the detective agency.

 _Well, at least I have the Kid heist tomorrow to look forward to_ he thought with a small smile. If he was honest with himself, and that was rare, he actually like the flamboyant thief's heists; not only for their challenges but because it's fun. And he would never admit it out loud but he actually like some of the tricks the magician does. Even though he's more interested in solving the trick than just admiring it like most of the people at Kid heists. And as much as he says that he thinks that Kid is just some thief and is annoying, they sort of formed a bond of trust with each other, a strange friendship between a detective - a magician's greatest critic, according to the thief himself- and a magician. In all honesty Conan would have considered the thief an actual friend and not just frenemy rivals, if Kid wasn't a criminal.

In higher spirits than he had been in all day, he entered the detective agency and smiled calling out "I'm home!"

"Welcome back Conan-kun! We got invited to a party tomorrow!" Ran exclaimed looking extremely excited.

"A party? Tomorrow?" Conan asked intrigued and tilting his head to one side.

Ran nodded in confirmation. The look in her slate blue eyes just screamed excited and was that pride Conan saw flash through them just then.

"Remember how dad got a case yesterday?" Conan nodded not sure where she was going with this.

"Well," Ran continued not really noticing Conan's questioning and somewhat judging look, " the lady turns out to be this wealthy man's niece, and she invited us via her uncle's approval to come to his 68th birthday party. She said that her uncle wanted to meet dad since he's the great Sleeping Kogoro."

Conan nodded thinking to himself as Ran was talking, _I see, so it's the typical we get invited somewhere and something happens_ he thought a bit too bitterly. As an afterthought occurred to him, he sweat dropped a little, _I probably just jinxed it. I may not believe in luck but please let nothing bad happen tomorrow._ He silently prayed to God hoping his prayers be answered.

When Ran finished talking, he gave her one of his most brightest well long practice smile while jumping up and down excitedly while exclaiming "Wow, we get to go to a party tomorrow! This is going to be so fun Ran-neechan!"

"What was Ot-chan's case anyway?" Conan ask a little curious as Ran smiled down at him enjoying his enthusiasm.

At Conan's question, she put a hand over her mouth in a delicate manner to stifle a laugh -which Shinichi would have thought as cute if he had never shrunk and lived as Conan pretending to be her adopted younger brother- she kneeled down to Conan's height and looked around her conspiratorially, she smirked and said in a whisper, "he found the lady's pet parakeet." This time she didn't bother to stifle the laugh that threatened to bubble out of her.

 _So the great detective Mouri Kogoro goes bird watching,_ he smirked inwardly.

"A parakeet?" Conan parroted. Ran stopped her fits of giggles to answer "yeah, according to dad, the parakeet is very special to her, so when dad found it, she was really grateful and she wants to invite us to the party as a thank you. Although I'm sure she's thank dad enough last time." Ran said the last bit with a frown. Conan could only agree with her.

"Oh! That reminds me dad said that the lady would bring her parakeet to the party tomorrow. It's that great Conan-kun? We get to see it." Ran exclaimed once again her eyes lighting up brightly.

"Mmm! I can't wait to go!" Conan said in all childish cheer as he jump up and down excitedly while Ran squeal in excitement as well. Just then, one Mouri Kogoro walked in and just stared at the scene before him.

 _What are they all squealing for?_ He thought grumpily. He still kind of had a hangover from last night and the noise wasn't helping his poor head. Seeing her dad at the doorway, Ran dragged him over and told him that Shinichi had decoded Kid's message.

"Che, I could've done that myself you know. I didn't need you to ask that detective brat for assistance." He grumbled sitting down at his desk.

"Yes, but you were too hungover at the moment and I'm sure the police would want the note decoded straight away and Shinichi is a good detective." Ran argued with her father putting her hands on her hips and gave him a look that clearly stated he cannot argue further on that point. Grumbling, Kogoro muttered "so, what did the detective brat say?"

 _I'm right here old man_ Conan thought to himself giving Mouri Kogoro a judging look which thankfully he didn't notice.

Pulling out her phone she read the first text that he had sent her earlier that day. Kogoro nodded then picked up the phone to call Inspector Nakamori about the note to Kid's latest heist.

 _He hasn't responded to my text, although I can't blame him for being busy with his case._ Ran thought looking at her phone with a sad miniscule smile that would've been missed had one not been paying attention. And of course Conan didn't miss it, so he tugged at the hem of her shirt and looked up at her with concerned bright blue eyes that darkened in the least bit with worry.

Smiling down at Conan thinking of how sweet he was for being concerned, she just shook her head to indicate that she was fine and announced that she was going to make dinner.

Conan watched her go with a dejected look and wished there was something that he could do to make her feel better but his options weren't really good ones to begin with. He walked over to the couch he was at that morning and picked up his book to continue reading it.

Staring at the wording on the page his mind travelled to mull over his options.

 _One-_ He could tell Ran his secret identity so she would know that he really is alive and well, minus the part where he's in the body of a seven year old. But then again there's so many things that could go wrong with that. She could hate him for lying to her all that time or she would think that he is either joking or insane. The other issue would be that she would know about Shinichi hiding as Conan and that would put her in danger with the organization and he didn't want that for her. Telling her the truth could and probably would most likely destroy his friendship with her too so Conan decided to forget about the idea, filing it away in the far corner of his mind.

 _Two-_ He could always continue using the antidote or 'borrow' some from Haibara to use from time to time, but if the organization doesn't kill him, then Haibara would for taking it without her permission.

To say the least all his options suck and there's nothing he could do about his current situation but wait for an antidote or if there will even be one. He heaved a dejected sigh wondering if he should just let Ran go if he can't return to his own body or if even if he returns, what will still be there for him considering how much has changed since he's been gone.

Conan fell asleep on the couch with that last thought in mind. His evening nap was the direct opposite of a peaceful slumber to say the least.

* * *

A/N: The second chapter yay! Yeah I know, still pretty uneventful. Hopefully Kaitou Kid makes an appearance in the story soon though. Also, sorry if I'm butchering their characters, because to me I feel like they're pretty out of character lol. On another note, the cream/gel thing that Professor Agasa made I got the idea from the Alex Rider series. It's a pretty good series hehe. Mmm, I know that Agasa usually makes gadgets and not chemical substances like the gel but hey maybe Haibara helped him with it considering she's a scientist and good with chemicals and all. Anyway I'll stop rambling on about pointless things now and hope you all enjoyed this chapter lol.


	3. Chapter 3 Part 1

Chapter 3:

Part 1

* * *

Conan woke up to the smell of buttered toast and freshly brewed coffee that following morning. He begrudgingly cracked an eye open and then the other and stared at the wall. Due to his mid evening nap, he wasn't able to go to sleep until 2 AM that night. Coffee seemed to be very tempting at the moment, but with Ran around he wouldn't get a chance to drink any. Muttering a curse under his breath, he walked out into the kitchen.

After they had all finished eating, they piled into the rental car that Kogoro had rented sometime last night.

When they had arrived at the house, which was more like a mansion, Ran stood by the car to look around the front garden in awe.

"Isn't it amazing Conan-kun?" She breathe, the words escaped her breathlessly. Conan made a noncommittal sound of agreement. It really was beautiful, the hedges that ran along the sides of the place made it look like a fence decorated with roses. The roses on the fence hedges were amazingly beautiful in their own rights. Ranging from light pink to a violet magenta, giving it an ombré like effect.

The rest of the front lawn was spread with healthy green grass on each side of the pathway which was incorporated with beds of flowers along the edge out the grass outlining it to give it more definition.

Down the long ivory stoned pathway, stood a fountain with a mermaid as its centerpiece. In the water that circled around the centerpiece were lily pads and lotus blossoms in full bloom giving it an elegant effect. On the patch of grass to the left side of the pathway stood a tall tree with a tire swing tied to one of its most sturdiest branches.

"Ah! Mouri-san! You made it to the party!" Shinozaki Katsuko -Kogoro's client with the parakeet- came over to them with a beaming smile.

"Always a pleasure to be in the presence of a beautiful lady." He said offering her one of his best charming smile and laughed. To which only seemed ridiculous to Ran and Conan. Giving her dad an annoyed look and a threatening glare, she still had yet to get her parents back together, she turned to give the lady a sweet smile.

"You two must be the kids that Mouri-san insisted on coming huh? What a beautiful young lady you are and who is this adorable little young man?" Shinozaki smiled down at Conan and then crouched to his eye level to pinch his cheeks.

"You know, I really love children and I don't have any myself." Shinozaki explained to Ran and Conan and continued on, "Mouri-san here was kind enough to insist that I meet you two." She gave them another beaming smile before she realized that she hadn't introduced herself yet.

 _So that's why he wanted us to come with him._ Ran and Conan thought simultaneously.

"Oh my, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Shinozaki Katsuko, it's really a pleasure to meet you both and a pleasure to see you again Mouri-san." She said bowing at them in greeting.

"Not at all, Shinozaki-san. The pleasure is all ours, after all you did invite us to the party!" Kogoro said before laughing one of his ridiculous laugh again. He then proceeded with the introductions.

"This here is my daughter Ran," he said swiping a hand in her direction and jabbing a thumb down at Conan he said "and this little boy here is the freeloader, Edogawa Conan."

Conan crossed his arms slightly and frowned a little at the mention of freeloader. _Without me you wouldn't have solved all this cases you know. I'm practically your invisible source of income._ He thought sarcastically.

"It's nice to meet you Shinozaki-san." Ran said smiling sweetly once the introductions had been made. Then she added "I hope that my father hasn't been a problem to you at all." She shot her father another look telling him to behave. Kogoro just grumbled about him being innocent of her accusations.

"The pleasure is all mine Ran-san. I hope you don't mind me calling you that though since I call your father Mouri-san already so it would be confusing." Shinozaki gave Ran an apologetic smile.

Ran shook her head, "No problem at all. I don't mind." She said still smiling her graceful smile.

"And it is a pleasure to meet you too young man." Shinozaki said kneeling down to Conan's height offering him a hand to shake.

Conan took the offered hand and gave her one of his childish happy smile and said "it's a pleasure to meet you too Shinozaki oba-san."

"Hey, brat! She's not old enough to be an auntie you know. You should call her Onee-san at least." Kogoro said staring down at Conan with a frown.

 _Hey, hey, don't go off acting like my mom now._ He shivered a little as he remembered all the times he had called his mother an old woman.

"Geez dad, stop trying to show off." Ran muttered inaudibly, although Conan picked it up with his sharp ears. He had to smile inwardly at that. As Shinozaki was inviting the group into the mansion, Conan felt a sharp chilling pang as if someone was staring and boring holes into his back. Whipping his head around quickly, his observant sapphires scanned and scrutinized the area only to find nothing out of the ordinary.

"Conan-kun? Is something wrong?" Ran asked, worry spread all over her expression as she crouched down to Conan's height. He smiled and shook his head answering "no I just thought I saw a cat earlier." _Brilliant_ _lie_ , he thought to himself sarcastically.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ran pressed on not convinced, "you looked scared Conan-kun." She added to prove her point. If Conan was shocked he hid it well behind his carefully crafted mask that he had managed to mold into near completion this last year.

"I-I thought that it was a black cat. You know how they say if one crosses your path you get bad luck." He said looking at Ran with the most innocent of looks and adding worry and gear into the expression for good measure. At this Ran looked frightened too.

"W-we, we'd better go inside before that happens huh?" She said picking Conan up and dragging Conan inside in a flash.

 _Haha, this girl,_ he thought fondly at his childhood friend. She always had such a morbid fear of the supernatural. _I wonder how she would react if she watched **Supernatural**?_ He smirked at that, no way Ran could handle it with all the mentions of ghosts in that show.

The mansion was made after a more western model like the ones in America. The first room that came to their view of vision was the music room. It was also arranged as a sort of living room. There were large couches decorated by golden frames and gold laced pillows that rested on the couches which gave it a wealthy yet entirely homely look. In the middle of the surrounding couches stood an old oak coffee table that seemed to have really well cared for despite its old age. _A family heirloom perhaps_ he thought, eyes traveling to the pearl white with gold trimmed grand piano which stood on its own very high and mighty behind the island of couches. Next to the grand piano were the huge windows with age old curtains drawn to the side to let the sunshine in which highlighted making most of the traces of gold shimmer and shine. Decorating along the walls of the carpeted living room stood several large bookshelves lines with modern and new looking books.

Ran stood at the room's doorway staring at it in awe. Her eyes wide at how each set of furniture was placed just so that the sunlight that escaped through the window hit each and every piece of the furniture in the room perfectly.

"It's picture perfect isn't it?" Asked a kind yet husky voice beside her. Startled Ran whipped her head in the direction of the voice so quickly that Conan could swear to all his collection of mystery books that he heard her neck cracked. Conan followed Ran's gaze to see an old looking man smile kindly at them. Ran nodded in agreement.

"It is very beautiful." She murmured almost in a trance at she looked back at the picturesque room. It could all have been a painting and she would have believed it if she wasn't standing there looking at the room herself.

"Ot-chan! It's good to see you again! Happy birthday uncle!" A familiar voice called as it's owner approached them as she ran from the doorway and gave him a hug. Shinozaki immediately went to introduced Conan and Ran once she had finished giving her uncle her well wishes.

Ran and Conan in turned bowed deeply giving the old man their respects and wishing him a happy birthday as well.

Kusatsu Hiroshi, the elderly old man, nodded his thanks and invited them on a small tour of the house before the party began. He took them a little further down the hallway and from across was the library; which was a marvelous sight to behold. There were books from every place imaginable, much like Shinichi's own library at home. Conan stood to marvel at the books a little longer until Kogoro grabbed him by the ear and dragged him off to catch up with the group.

"Brat," he grumbled, "keep up with everyone will you. We're going to run into trouble if you don't." Then silently to himself he added, "like most times when you run off. What a troublesome kid".

Conan's sharp ears of course did not miss the last part, and he deadpanned even more so quietly to himself; "you should be more concerned whether Ran gets lost or not old man." He rubbed his throbbing ear ever so slightly as he begrudgingly followed behind the group.

As they walk a little further down, they encountered the kitchen and next to it the dining room which was larger than any Ran and Kogoro had ever seen; Conan had seen some like it on his trip to Hawaii with his parents a few years back.

Kusatsu continued their trek down the hall and led them to another sitting room, this minus the book cases and piano which the previous one had. They passed a couple of bathrooms with tropical and zen like decors and then they reached another sitting room with a large TV mounted to the wall.

"I'm afraid that I was stop the tour here but feel free to continue exploring the house on your own." He gave them an apologetic smile as he excused himself to go check on the party preparations.

As soon as Ran heard that they could just walk around and explore freely she grabbed Conan by the hand and held him tight not wanting Conan to run off and get into trouble again. Shinozaki and the rest of the group thanked him and wished him a happy birthday once again. After her uncle had left, she smiled at them and offered to continue the tour.

"Um, excuse me, Shinozaki-san? If it's not too much trouble can we please see your parakeet?" Ran asked rather shyly. She felt a little awkward asking for something so childish at her age so she added, "Conan-kun was really excited about it when he heard that you were bringing your parakeet." Shinozaki gave the two a warm smile as she nodded and headed off the get the bird.

When Shinozaki was out of earshot Ran turned to Conan and gave him a giant beaming smile. "Isn't this great Conan-kun! We get to see the parakeet soon." Conan smiled wryly and comically deadpanned _so you really wanted to see it, don't drag me into this._ He thought forgetting momentarily that he was supposed to be a seven year old. Kogoro just harrumphed and complained silently about that confounded bird and disturbing his time with Shinozaki.

Shinozaki soon came back beaming with the parakeet on her shoulder. Both Conan and Kogoro could see that that was the happiest she has been in weeks. If Kogoro had blamed Conan for Ran's recent teary mood then he wouldn't complain or deny it. Afterall, he was just happy to see Ran's bright smile again. He hates seeing his best friend sad and it made him feel worse knowing that he was most likely the main cause of it.

After the parakeet, Bobblehead, was introduced to everyone, they paraded into the dining area since lunch was announced.

They each took their seats and waited for the man of the house to to give a toast. Clearly his throat slightly, Kusatsu Hiroshi stood up and held his glass of wine high and thanked everyone for coming on his behalf and in turn added his greetings of well being and a long prosperous life to himself and everyone there.

 _Hmm, I wonder how long you will survive. Can you stop me?_ _I'm curious to see what you come up with next._ Conan gave a little shiver as he sensed a strong sense of foreboding nearby, and just as he scanned his eyes around the area looking for something out of the ordinary; everyone drank from their glasses. Not even four seconds had passed before a loud thud echoed through Conan's ears did a blood curling shriek sound throughout the room and he was by the side of the body.

 _I knew this would happen._ He deadpanned as he bent down for closer examination. Somewhere nearby a shadowy figure smiled coldly causing Conan to shiver and turn around slightly to scan the guest once again.

* * *

 **AN:** Yes! Finally finished this part. Nothing happened much except the ending of this so sorry for the boring chapter even after a long wait. I was really busy so I haven't been able to progress. (T-T) Anyway I'm working on part 2 of this chap. Is it predictable, I'll give a cookie to anyone who solves this before I upload pt.2 ( ◠‿◠ ).


	4. Chapter 3 Part 2

Chapter 3

Part 2

* * *

This _feeling,_ he gasped, _it's so familiar, yet, so foreign._ He just couldn't shake of the cold feeling that he's been getting since they met Shinozaki. Unconsciously, his blazing blues eyes drifted slightly to Shinozaki. He decided that it's innocent until proven guilty in this case. Conan turned back to looked at the body again but was suddenly lifted up. He gave a little sound of protest as he struggled to free himself.

"Children should not be near these type of things!" Ran scolded. "Come on let's leave Dad to his job and go to another room and wait until he solves this case."

Conan struggled in protest again, this time managing to wriggle free from Ran's near death grip. He pouted and looked up at Ran with big bright eyes filled with wonder and shouted "but I want to see the great detective Mouri Kogoro solve how this man was poisoned!" Jabbing a small index finger at the collapsed corpse, Conan said in a high childlike voice "he fell when he was drinking his grape juice so that means that he was poisoned right?"

"The kid is right. This man was indeed poisoned, most likely by anectine." A tall man in his mid thirties remarked bending over the body examining it more closely.

"Who are you?" Kogoro grumbled, "you should leave it to the professionals." He said the last part with a huge amount of pride. The stranger just smiled, somewhat mysteriously, and nodded in consent. _Leave_ _it to the professional indeed_. The stranger smiled with interest inwardly.

Taking a few steps back the stranger introduced himself as a doctor. Acknowledging this, Kogoro allowed the doctor to further examine the body until the police and forensics team showed up. A minute or two after the victim had collapsed and was confirmed dead by the resident doctor and Kogoro, Ran had called the police.

 _Now it's your turn, show me what you got._

Conan decided that since Kogoro was busy conversing with the doctor he might as well find some clue that could lead The Great Sleeping Kogoro to solving the case. He also thought better of using his stun gun wristwatch today because for some reason it just didn't seem like a good idea. He'll just have to play the part of observant smart kid today.

Going to where the victim had dropped his glass when he fell, Conan carefully picked up the glass in sniffed its content. _Nothing out of the ordinary,_ he concluded. Putting down the glass again in the exact spot where it landed, he then climbed up the chairs and looked around the table. _Okay, so considering the fact that Kusatsu-san collapsed right after the toast, then the suspect are obviously the ones sitting near him._ Conan cradled his chin with his index finger and his thumb and looked intently ahead.

 _The doctor, his wife and son, and Shinozaki-san are all suspicious._ Conan looked up to find the doctor study him intently. Suddenly the doctor started walking towards him.

"What are you doing kid? You shouldn't be here, your sister said so earlier too. You should listen to her." He gave Conan a wry smile that made him want to shrink even smaller then his seven year old body.

 _Sister...that, that sounds nice. To have her as a sister._ Conan had no idea where that thought came from so he decided to ignore it for now.

He turned his attention to the doctor and offered him a bright smile. "I want to help Ot-chan!" He shouted throwing his hands up for emphasis. "I want to be a great detective like uncle Kogoro when I grow up too."

Kogoro let out a loud prideful laugh and said "stick with me kid, I'll teach you everything. After all I am the best there is."

 _Sure you are uncle._ _Keep believing that._ He thought sarcastically.

Conan turned to Kogoro and asked "Do you know where Shinozaki-san is? Maybe we should check if she is okay." Kogoro grumbled, muttering something about him just about doing just that. Leaving the doctor in charge, they went to see Shinozaki who was currently bawling her heart out with her aunt and cousin. Kusatsu's wife grieved for a while when she first found out her husband died, but is now just sitting silently and glaring at the floor seeming to be in deep thought of something. The son on the other hand didn't seem to care much for the event that had occurred. Shinozaki seemed to be the one who was the most affected by the ongoing event. Ran was currently trying to calm Shinozaki down but to no avail.

Kogoro started his investigation with Kusatsu's wife while officer Takagi and Chiba along with the forensic team were busy down stairs. Kusatsu Toshiko, the victim's wife, begrudgingly answered Mouri's and Megure's questions. The next person the duo interrogated was Kusatsu Hirokazu, Kusatsu Hiroshi and Toshiko's only son. Hirokazu was around six foot tall and seemingly well off, but in truth he was draining his father's money as he is in great debt with a number of people. They lastly interviewed Shinozaki who by then had been able to calm down some. Bobblehead sat perched on her shoulder in attempts to be of comfort to his owner.

When they had finished their questioning, Mouri and Megure went down stairs for a progress check. Conan discreetly followed along, there was still one other person he found suspicious other than the three currently sitting in the game room upstairs.

Heading back into the kitchen, Conan found his fourth suspect standing alone discreetly watching the forensic team bustle about. Seeing officer Takagi, he decided to head over there first.

Conan gave Takagi's sleeve a little pull to catch his attention. Looking down slightly startled, he calmed a little when he saw Conan but panicked again because it would be trouble of Inspector Megure saw Conan here.

"Conan-kun, you shouldn't be here right now, go back upstairs and wait with Ran-san." He said worriedly giving Conan a small smile. Conan wasn't about to give up just yet so he pressed on.

"But Takagi Keiji, Kogoro Ot-chan wanted to know if you've questioned the guests down here yet. Just in case someone noticed something." Conan explained in a very childlike manner.

"Conan-kun, you usually question the suspects only." Takagi tried his best to explain without making things complicated.

"Like that doctor over there?" Conan queried giving a small nod in the doctor's direction. Takagi looked up momentarily and looked back down at Conan. _This kid is always right about these things and that man sure is suspicious._ He gave Conan another nod of confirmation. Seeing as there was other things to do while Takagi handles that, Conan continued his usual routine of finding clues and evidence.

About two hours passed and Conan was near to solving the case. _I just need that last piece._ He gave a frustrated huff and sat down on the couch in the living room they had stopped to admire when they first arrived. Sorting out his thoughts he went over the event of that afternoon.

First, the victim was rich and only had his wife, son, and niece left. They all had motives for wanting his money. Which was most likely the cause of this, he also had officer Chiba look into that and confirm it for him. _That takes care of the motive,_ he nodded in affirmation.

Second, he narrowed it down to the three main suspects and he was most sure that it was that person who had done it. The doctor although suspicious had no real ties with the victim, no, there was something else about the doctor that chills him to the bone and he was about 90% sure he knows what it is. Shaking off that thought, he decided to move on to the next point which was currently being investigated by officer Takagi.

Third, was the evidence, and he is most sure of the method that had been used for this murder to happen. He had confirmed it with none other than the niece of the victim, Shinozaki Katsuko. From somewhere in the house among the guests, a lone figure thought, _well now detective,_ _is it time for your deduction show to begin?_

For the uptenth time that day, Conan felt himself shivering, was he catching a cold. Shaking his head again to rid that thought he went to look for Kogoro; after all, it's about time the great sleeping Kogoro begins his deduction show.

"Kogoro Ot-chan. Takagi Keiji has something he wants to show you." Conan said dragging Kogoro along back to the dining hall. Kogoro grumbled but followed along anyways.

 _I was hoping that this famous detective could have solved the case himself, but he's got it all wrong. His deduction earlier today was way off course. To bad I have to put him to sleep again._ Conan thought this with a great amount of deadpanness. Once Kogoro turned his back, Conan took aim and shot him with the antiseptic needle. Doing that weird little dance and making those strange noises, Kogoro collapsed onto a nearby chair. Not long after, officer Takagi and the rest poured into the living room.

"Ah, Mouri-kun! You've solved the case?" Asked Inspector Megure with some excited anticipation. _Makes my job easier like this sometimes._ He thought with an invisible smile.

"Yes, I have inspector. Now, I'll spare you the details and just briefly summarize this case." Kogoro, Conan, stated.

Conan stopped for a brief second to scan his suspects minus one person who is now missing. The thing is, that cold feeling he had earlier still remained. _That person is here somewhere._ _I should hurry and finish this. There are answers I need to find, answers for myself._ After all, there are times when people need things for themselves too.

"Get on with it then! Who killed my husband! I want to make them pay for what they have done!" Toshiko screamed, her and her son's eyes narrowed towards Shinozaki. _I bet it was her,_ they thought simultaneously.

"Kusatsu Hiroshi was killed by poison today at 1:20 PM. He ingested a poison as the doctor earlier had stated, anectine. What I found to be most interesting in this whole case was that he had a habit. A habit only his close friends and or family would have noticed. Yes, the people who could be responsible for this crime could only be the three of you. Kusatsu Toshiko-san, Kusatsu Hirokazu, and Shinozaki Katsuko-san." 'Kogoro' said and you could practically see the frown on his face if he was conscious.

"Toshiko-san, are you aware of what habit your husband has when his drinks from a glass?" Sleeping Kogoro asked, his voice sounded all knowing. Toshiko gave him a death glare and grinded her teeth together. Her son gave a her a side glance and looked back at Kogoro understanding what he was talking about.

"He had many habits detective. Pray tell, what you might be referring to." She gritted out. _How dare he accuse me! Me! Of murdering my own husband? Ridiculous!_ She angrily ranted to herself and was just about seconds away from exploding with anger.

Conan nodded to himself in thought. Then he smiled, not because through this that he provoked the culprit, but it was because he was quite satisfied in finding what he needed to know. _Good_ , _now to trap the criminal once and for all._ He needed to wrap this up before that person disappeared again, so he continued his explanation.

"Shinozaki-san, do explain to us that peculiar habit that your uncle had. The one when he drinks from a cup or glass of any sort." 'Kogoro' said. Shinozaki nodded and looked around nervously, locking eyes with her aunt and cousin who narrowed their eyes at her threateningly in turn.

Fiddling with the ring on her finger, she bit her lip and said, "he...he would twist, twist his cup to a certain degree after toasting when he drinks." She finish the last part quietly and looked down to the ground, Bobblehead came to rest on her shoulder again for moral support.

Conan nodded again and said through his voice changing bow tie once again. "That is correct Shinozaki-san, but please, what has gotten you so nervous, do try to relax."

"Mouri-san, with all due respect, your suspecting me of murder, of my own uncle no less. I can't help it but feel uneasy." Shinozaki countered.

"You wouldn't have anything to worry about if you hadn't done it." Muttered her cousin giving her an it's obvious look.

Shinozaki just frowned at him and looked back at Kogoro expecting further explanation.

"He had another habit, one that caused his fatality." He said solemnly. Conan decided now was the time to finally close the doors of this case.

"He would lick his lips after taking a sip from his glass, he did after all swallow the poison. The late Kusatsu Hiroshi-san was killed the by none other than you." Conan said sternly raising Kogoro's arm to point at the culprit for effect.

Taken aback the culprit answered, "where's the evidence? You can't accuse me until you have cold hard evidence."

"I had Conan look into this for me earlier today, and we did find the evidence. The one that you switched at the crime scene when everyone was all eyes on the victim who had just collapsed."

"Takagi, bring it here." 'Kogoro' said. "These two glasses are familiar aren't they, they were the ones used during the toast earlier today. The ones left behind were the ones that you had switch out. Yes, all four have been tested for poison and DNA. It's over, come clean, Toshiko-san." He said the last part very solemnly.

Toshiko fought in the police grasps as they tried to handcuff her. Just then Chiba came into the dining room holding a sealed envelope.

"Mouri-san, I found what you asked me to look for." He announced waving the envelope back and forth.

"Ah, good, Shinozaki-san, I'll give you the honor of taking care of that and do get your lawyer to read it soon." Conan said into the voice changer.

"It's your uncle's will," Chiba said handing her the envelope with a smile. "Take care of it alright?" He added. Shinozaki nodded and promised she'll do her best in protecting it until she can reach a lawyer. Kusatsu Toshiko was no longer in the house to hear about the will, but her son did. _I bet that old man left everything to her._ He thought bitterly, anger beginning to rise just as much as a greater and deeper hatred towards her was.

Shinozaki and Hirokazu both agreed on a set time and date when they could hear the will being read to them.

As all the commotion was going on after he had solved the case, Conan had snuck off to search for that one person who gave him an uneasy feeling. _Come on, where are you?_ He thought frustratingly and scanned through the area closely. As he walked into the backyard garden maze, he encounter the very person he had wanted to find, but at the same time did not want to confront.

"What took you so long little one? Losing your touch." The person gave a cold mysterious hint of a smile.

"It's unexpecting, to see you here." He said quietly as he approached the person.

"Yes, you could say that I was doing some research." The person said facing Conan, mysteriously clouded eyes stared straight at him.

"Research," he scoffed, "the police are here, one word from me telling them about your location and identity and they'll come."

"Aren't you the beloved little prince," the person said amused yet the tone was cold.

Conan just rolled his eyes, "let's just cut to the chase, why are you here?"

There was nothing that he could do to stop this person at the moment. He had already used the stun gun wristwatch on Kogoro earlier who was most likely still asleep in the dining room. His soccer ball belt and shoes who probably not help much either as this person can just dodge them easily.

"Why can I not be." The mysterious person responded sounding slightly amused. "You are after all, someone who should be kept an eye on."

"Flattering really, but you didn't answer my question. What was your purpose of coming here today?" Conan asked crossing his arms in annoyance.

The figure just smirked again, "like I said, I just wanted to check up on you. You have been quiet these past few weeks after all."

" I could say the same about you, Vermouth." Conan said frown growing deeper.

The person didn't say anything for a while, then smiled this one seemed slightly genuine and she ripped off the mask she was wearing and deflated her clothing so that her clothes became more form fitting to her. "As expected from you silver bullet-kun, you've caught me."

"Yet, you still won't state your business here." Conan grumbled.

" A secret makes a woman, woman." She said mystery smile played across her lips once more. Conan just gave her a judging look, and asked instead, "didn't you disguise as something similar to this before?"

Vermouth gave him a smirk this time, and nodded. "Unoriginal." Conan muttered.

"I'll stop you, you know, you and the whole organization, I bring it all down." Conan threatened.

"I have no doubt about it silver bullet-kun, no doubt about it at all." She remarked thoughtfully and genuinely as if she believed everything Conan had just said.

"Oh, and just for my own amusement, I'll let you in on a little secret." Vermouth said tone still as mysterious as ever.

Conan looked at her skeptically but listened anyway.

"Something will happen at the Haido Hotel in few weeks time." Mocking laughter evident in her voice but the intention was there.

 _That can't be the reason she came all the way here._ Conan thought in disbelief. After Vermouth had said her bit, she had disappeared somewhere into the maze. Conan made a move to follow her to get more information, but he heard Ran's voice not far off.

Turning around he trudged back the way he came. _Vermouth can't be telling the truth, this has to be a trap._ Conan decided, but also decided to run this by Professor Agasa later on too. Maybe he can pretend to be a guest at the hotel that day and hopefully give him information in whether the Organization will be there or not.

As the trio Kogoro, Ran, and Conan piled into the car to leave behind the now sad mansion, Conan thought, _why? Why did she tell me this? She can't be seriously telling me information on them, I can only see this as a trap; but that would mean that they know who is behind all this. Not only that but the Organization kills first and ask questions later. No, there's something else,_ he finally decided. _It's better to focus on Kid's heist tonight,_ he concluded and looked out the window of the car willing for a peaceful ride home.

* * *

 **AN:** Hooray! I finished the third chapter! Well, several other D.C. characters were introduced and haha I butchered them badly I know. Especially Vermouth and Megure, but I'll try my best to improve on their characters. The Vermouth bit was really random too. Sorry for such a weird and boring chapter but Kid's heist is coming up yaaay! I'm currently working on it and well I'm curious to see how I'll interpret the heist and Kid's character. Hopefully it turns out well. And I'm so sorry for ranting and butchering the characters! (T-T) anyways I hope you all enjoyed this and I'll be back with chapter four, soon hopefully if I'm not occupied with life.


	5. Chapter 4 Part 1

Chapter 4:

Part 1

* * *

"Dad, we're hungry." Ran said. They didn't get to eat due to what had happened earlier at the party that Shinozaki had invited them to. By the time the trio had left, it was already near to dinner time. Kogoro agreed with Ran; he was getting kind of hungry himself. Glancing at the rear view mirror for a brief second, he asked the two what they wanted and where they wanted to eat.

"I want ramen!" Conan exclaimed excitedly, bouncing up and down in his seat in the back. Ran nodded in agreement, and Kogoro pulled into the nearest ramen shop.

As they were eating, Ran asked her father, "dad? Are you going to Kaitou Kid's heist tonight? Maybe you can catch him this time if you go." She said the last part as a half joke.

 _Unlikely, very unlikely,_ Conan thought smirking invisibly, _even I can't and how many times have I outsmarted that guy?_ He wasn't going to admit it, but he really wished that night time would fall already so he can go to the heist.

It seems lately, that he has been anticipating to see that elusive thief more and more often as the days passed. _This drug is affecting my brain and making me insane,_ he concluded. Conan missed what Ran was saying to him as his mind was elsewhere, namely one annoying magician.

"Conan-kun?" Ran asked. When he still didn't respond she waved a hand over his face, then tried to get his attention again.

"Hello, anyone home?" This time she said it while shaking his shoulders, finally successful in shaking Conan out of his stupor.

With a start, he blinked, once, twice, and looked up at Ran giving her a small slightly apologetic smile. She didn't look amused at all, only some annoyance, skepticism, and worry in slate blue eyes.

"Is everything alright Conan-kun?" Ran asked in a tone that clearly stated that he must tell nothing but the truth. He gave a small sheepish smile and nodded.

"Ran-neechan? How come Kid can never be caught? Because if no one can catch him then that means that he's really a phantom right?" He asked in a very innocent and curious manner. Then he thought, _well, I'm not lying. I really was thinking, or more of ranting to myself about Kid and his annoying escape methods._ Ran looked a little taken aback at the question and turned to her father; her eyes telling him to explain.

"He's just an annoying escaped artist," Kogoro muttered and went back to eating his ramen. Conan had to hide a smile as Ran nearly face planted into her bowl of ramen. Kogoro raises an eyebrow but decided to ignore it and continued to devour his bowl of ramen.

After they had eaten, Kogoro dropped Ran and Conan of at the museum where Kaitou Kid's heist was being held. Sonoko had called just earlier urging Ran to hurry so they could have front row seats.

Ran and Conan were standing in the midst of a crowd behind some guards waiting for the aforementioned time in Kid's heist note. Some part of Conan's mind in the way back half expected Kid to disguise as Ran and tease him, but that didn't happen and he was grateful. He didn't really want to kick a high speed soccer ball at Ran of all people due to some injuries that he might end up getting instead. If Kid does decide to disguise as her, then Conan had better be very spot on with his target, or else.

"Ah! Kid-sama! I hope he'll notice me in this bright yellow shirt!" A random fan girl screamed jumping up and down with her friend who screamed along with her.

"These girls." Sonoko muttered. She had toned down her fangirling a little bit after she met Kid that one time. _Ah, the time Makoto, Sonoko's boyfriend, nearly killed Kid for disguising as Sonoko._ Conan chuckled silently to himself. Even so, Sonoko was just as excited as any other time as she would have been at a Kid heist. After all, she self-stated herself as Kid's number one fan. Conan scanned the area thoroughly with observant eyes, looking for any sign of the white clad magician.

He glanced at his watch to check the time and it was ten til eight. _Just a little longer until your showdown begins_. Conan thought with mild excitement. From somewhere in the crowd, he could feel a set of eyes laughing at him.

It annoyed him to no end because he couldn't pinpoint Kid's exact location. If he knew any better than he could say that Kid was laughing at him from somewhere in the crowd. He was half-right, Kid was chuckling in amusement from a building nearby, delighted that his favorite miniature detective got his message and came.

He checked the time, five minutes left until he was due to appear in front of his audience. Kid crouched by the roof and checked the wind, and popped out his hang glider. It shoned a bright shimmering white in the night sky with assist of the moon's light. Konosuke Jii, his assistant, friend, and somewhat of a grandfatherly figure, gave him a nod of his head when Kid turned around to inquire if he had all the preparations finished. Kid smiled one of his maniac happy smiles. The best thing about having Conan here was seeing the expression on his face when Kid had managed to wow Conan with his tricks. _8 O'Clock, it's time!_ He thought with delight and jumped off of the building, hang glider spread out behind him like wings.

The moment he had jumped off of the building, Jii had also pressed a button of a remote control that he was holding, setting clouds of smoke to rise from all corner of the area, engulfing the place's occupants blinding them from view of the highly guarded jewel case.

"Ne, Ojii-san, when will you learn that I cannot be caught" Kid's voice echoed throughout the area when the smoke had started spreading, taunting Suzuki Jirokichi. Nakamori keibu, began yelling orders to his task force.

"Kid's here! Find him, let no one left alive! I mean unsearch! Unsearched!" He yelled frantically, eye scanning the area suspiciously even though he couldn't see anything through the ever growing cloud of smoke. Conan who was standing nearby thought to himself, _cool down a little Inspector, Kid's already taken the emerald._ He decided to let the Inspector figure that out for himself, right now he had one troublesome thief to find and catch.

Sneaking away from Ran and Sonoko, Conan weaved his way through the crowd. He then came up to a building which was the designated meeting spot in the heist note. It was after all meant for him. Conan entered the building and went straight to the elevator. The building was a book publishing firm that was closed for the night due to Kid's heist as the owner's wife and daughter were such avid fans of Kid and made him close down that night so they could all go to the heist together.

The building was around 20 floors high or more and the elevators, as Conan had realized when he pushed the button to go up, wasn't working. _Great, this is just great_. Conan thought and quickly ran for the stairs.

Finding the door to the stairway, he rushed up the stairs as fast as his shrunken legs could carry him. _This is such a pain._ Conan thought, he was definitely kicking a high speed soccer ball at Kid for this.

It was a good thing that Conan was athletic or this would have been more torturous than it was already. It's also times like these that he was maybe a little envious of Kid for being able to appear on top of a building in less than ten seconds. Climbing up the stairs, Conan remembered the time when Kid had used the teleportation trick on one of the challenges old man Jirokichi had thrown at Kid. That trick, even though he had solved it, was still amazingly to see and for him subconsciously without knowing it himself, that maybe he enjoyed the trick itself more then him being able to solve the trick.

During Conan's battle with his inner thoughts, he hadn't noticed that he had neared the door to the roof. With the last few steps, Conan slowed down a bit to catch his breath and to turn the power voltage up on his shoes. When he reached the door, he kicked it opened and rushed onto the rooftop.

Standing near the ledge of the roof, Kid held the emerald up to the moonlight to check to see if it was The Pandora, although he doubt it was. To no surprise, the emerald didn't change color when held in moonlight. _Damn, wrong jewel again. How long until I find The Pandora so I can avenge you, father._ Kid thought with mild sadness. Letting out an inaudible sigh of disappointment, he heard the rushing footsteps of one small detective. A sense of happiness rushed through him briefly and he gave a small smirk.

Turning at a slight angle so the moonlight reflected off of his monocle and the brim of his top hat shadowed the top half of his face, he smiled at Conan and said, "ah, you came. I thought you had forgotten about me. It took you long enough, detective." All sense of the disappointment and slight frustration he had early for not finding the right jewel had taken a trip to nowhere land and disappeared from his mind that moment.

"Save it." Conan spat glaring at Kid. He was in no mood to be teased at the moment. All Conan could think of was a soccer ball to Kid's face first and questions and taunting, battle of wits come later.

* * *

 **AN:** Hello, I'm back with the first part of chapter four and I'm sorry that it is super short, but I'll make sure that the second part is longer. Also aww poor Kaito, I'm sure you'll find Pandora someday. Not sure how I did with Kaito's character lol. Anyway I hope everyone enjoys this one and I'll be back with part two someday. (⌒▽⌒)


	6. Chapter 4 Part 2

Quick Note:

I think I added some language in this chapter and I might do that in future chapters too so just a quick warning to anyone who doesn't like those things and I'm sorry if it's offensive to anybody but I just wanted to give the heads up.

* * *

Chapter 4:

Part 2

* * *

Conan gave Kid a uninterested look although his feelings deep down inside said otherwise. He was maybe slightly excited to see how the thief would try to outwit him this time around.

"Just hand over the emerald and I'll let you go...in one piece." Conan added the last part as an afterthought.

Kid made a dramatic gesture of clutching his heart and gave Conan a pouty hurt look. "You wound me so tantei-kun. I feel as if an arrow had just pierced through my warm heart."

"Oh do spare me the theatrics Kid." Conan rolled his eyes.

"What theatrics?" Kid blinked. Conan was about a millimeter away from face palming or banging his head really hard on a wall, either one would sound really nice just about now.

"I just wanted to battle it out with you. After I went through the trouble of inviting you here." Kid who was now standing tall and giving one of his famous Cheshire smiles twirled the emerald necklace and finally caught it. Bringing it to his face, he asked "does this color look good on me?" He gave Conan a playful smirk -totally intent on teasing Conan until he blew a gasket- which made Conan want nothing more than to kick a supercharged soccer ball at him, and he did.

Kid nearly was able to dodge the sudden attack from one very short detective. Wide eyed, Kid veered his body to the right just nearly able to avoid being hit with Conan's soccer ball thrown at him at full force. Taking out his card gun, he shot the second soccer ball attack. The ball pop just about a foot away from Kid. _Is it just me or is Tantei-kun getting faster at this._ He thought just narrowly missing the third. He chanced a glance at Conan ready for the next attack and saw that Conan seemed to be in a better mood. _What the hell, he seemed really angry at the world just moments ago._ Kid deadpanned to himself. Not another minute had passed and Conan sent another onslaught of soccer balls at Kid, and from his point of view it looked like Conan was playing a minigame of hit the thief.

He was however not enjoying the miniature detective's games so much this time, instead of aiming for the soccer ball, he aimed near Conan's shoes, and shot. As the card hit slicing into the ground near where Conan was about to kick another ball, he stopped and glanced up at Kid giving him a murderous expression.

"Idiot! That could have hit me." Conan said annoyed and possibly angry with the magician. Kid only gave him a small apologetic smile and said "I'm sorry?"

Conan gave him a deadpan expression which clearly stated that he was not forgiving him for that. Sighing Kid said, "I just wanted to stop your onslaught of soccer balls at me." Yet, he still smirked despite the sincerity in his voice. Conan really couldn't figure the thief out and maybe that was why he was so interested in the magician in the first place, because his greatest mystery is not the Organization or his minuscule problem, but Kaitou Kid himself. The guy was shrouded with a mystery that he has no idea of and that must be the reason why Conan actually pays attention to the moonlight magician. Yes, that must be it. Conan concluded and stood down from his onslaught of soccer balls. When a minute passed of companionable silence -somehow the two didn't find the sudden quiet between them awkward- and no one tried to physically harm the other, they nodded and formed a silent truce (for the time being, later on is another issue).

Back at the scene of the heist down below, Inspector Nakamori, whose face was burning a bright red at the realization that Kid had disappeared from the scene along with the Elven's Emerald.

"Damn it Kid!" He cursed under his breath. _Where_ _can_ _he_ _be!_ Inspector Nakamori thought furiously as he marched through his guard he shouted "leave no stone unturned, I want Kid found and arrested, you hear? Arrested!" The guards of Jirokichi's security and the Kid Task Force nodded and left in all different directions searching for the magician in white.

Throughout all the ruckus that was going on, Ran and Sonoko had realized that Conan had disappeared yet again as the smoke had cleared out.

"Conan-kun!" Ran called the panic and worry extremely evident in her voice.

"Hey! Brat with glasses! Where are you?" Sonoko joined in, her voice rang loud and clear throughout the crowded area. _I swear, I'm sensing deja vu all over again._ Sonoko thought with a comically annoyed face. Ran and Sonoko looked everywhere in the crowd, but the still couldn't find Conan. Ran even asked Inspector Nakamori and the task force to tell her if they end up finding or seeing Conan. Sonoko went to her uncle to ask him to help her find Conan whereabouts. _You're in so much trouble once we find you,_ Ran and Sonoko thought simultaneously.

From above on the rooftop, Conan gave a little sneeze. _Why do I feel like I'd be safer up here._ Conan thought. Kid blinked at him most likely to ask if Conan was okay or if he had a cold; Conan wasn't sure which it was, or it could've been neither so he just shook his head. Even from the rooftop, they could hear what most likely sounded like Ran and Sonoko yelling Conan's name, which was probably by a megaphone that they had borrowed from Inspector Nakamori.

"Looks like your sister and her friend are looking for you." Kid said quietly as he went to sit down on the ledge. Conan made to sit down next to him all the while thinking _why does everyone just assume that Ran is my sister? Al least Vermouth only said it when she disguised as the doctor earlier. I know she didn't mean it,_ Conan concluded as an afterthought. He didn't bother to correct Kid and just nodded saying "yeah, I guess she is." They both sat for a moment in silence, until Kid broke it.

"Hey, is she really your sister? I mean you two look nothing alike at all." Kid said tilting his head to look down at Conan.

"Uh...I was adopted." Conan said maybe a little too quickly, and of course Kid caught onto that. He just hummed a response in a tone that said he didn't really believe Conan at all, but didn't say anything else on the matter. Conan frowned slightly at that, _I'm telling the truth,_ he grumbled to himself. For some reason it bothered him that Kid didn't believe him.

"Conan! Where are you?" This time they both heard Ran and Sonoko through the megaphone loud and clear. Kid chanced a glance at Conan who looked slightly mortified, and he had to admit it was amusing.

"I'm doomed." Conan quietly muttered to himself forgetting momentarily about the white clad magician and the emerald. Kid saw this as a perfect opportunity to escape when Conan was occupied with his thoughts, but the slight sound and movement from his hang glider snapping open caused Conan to come out of his reverie. Quickly, before Kid could make a move to fly away, Conan grabbed slightly onto the edge of Kid's suit jacket and said, "wait."

Slightly annoyed with his failed escape attempt, Kid glance back down at Conan with an unreadable gazed and muttered "what."

"Give me the emerald." Conan said outstretching his hand. Kid could tell that he was planning something, but what he could not tell. When Kid hesitated, Conan looked up with imploring childish puppy like eyes and said "I need it as an excuse to save myself," and added really quietly so that only he himself could hear "and possibly avoid severe injures that Ran might cause to me." He had to shiver at the last part. Kid gave him another skeptical yet amused look.

"On one condition," he said, holding up his index figure to emphasize the one. Conan nodded in agreement.

"You let me go in peace this time. That means no soccer balls flying at me at high speed." Kid said frowning to himself at the last phrase. He really hated when Conan kicked soccer balls at him. _Who teaches this kid these things,_ he added as an afterthought.

"Okay, I'll just kick low speed soccer balls at you then." Conan muttered quietly, but Kid heard it nonetheless.

"No! No kicking soccer balls at me whatsoever." Kid put his hands up in an 'X' for more emphasis on the no.

Conan looked a little bored at that but still made a move to give Kid's proposition a thought. After awhile, he nodded and outstretched his hand again, this time to shake hands, and said "deal."

Kid nodded as well and shook hands with Conan to seal the deal and handed over the emerald, again stepping on the ledge to get ready to jump off of the building and fly away in the night.

At the plaza surrounded by people, Inspector Nakamori still had no luck in finding Kid. He didn't think that Kid would just take the jewel and fly off. Ran was getting more worried by the moment as Conan had still not shown up.

"Do you need a lift down tantei-kun?" Kid asked with another smirk as he got into position. Conan should his head and said "I think I'd rather walk." Kid just shrugged muttering "suit yourself."

Conan watched as Kid jumped off of the ledge and soared off. He was tempted to kick another soccer ball at him just so he would 'land' near Inspector Nakamori and hopefully get caught, but a deal was a deal after all. Conan sighed and turned around towards the door.

Going back down the set of stairs of doom, a much easier feat to do than going up, Conan finally exited the book publishing firm some ten to fifteen minutes later.

Making his way through the crowd, Conan spotted Inspector Nakamori still fuming at having lost Kid the moment he appeared. Conan weaved his way over to him but was intercepted by two strong arms.

"And where have you been?" The owner or those arms that held him tight demanded. Conan thought _shit, I'm actually gonna die before the Organization finds me._

Sonoko who was standing beside Ran opened her mouth wide to say her piece. "Do you know how worried Ran and I were? Although more Ran than me." She muttered, then continuing, "we looked everywhere for you! We even had to go to Inspector Nakamori to borrow his megaphone to call you. But you know what? You didn't answer and we called and called and called. Where did you go?" Sonoko was about to continue on ranting, but Ran stopped her there.

"Sonoko, it's alright. I'm sure Conan-kun has a perfectly good explanation for disappearing on us like that. Do tell us what is it Conan-kun." Ran said unconsciously squeezing Conan a little too tight as she gave him a sickly sweet smile, and even her tone was coated in a dangerous amount of sugar.

Conan shivered and tried to wriggle out of Ran's death grip for the second time that day, but to no avail. Both girls looked at him expectantly and Conan wished that he had not left the building, nope, the building was ten times better than going through an interrogation with Ran and Sonoko.

Conan hesitated for a moment and said, "um, well I saw a pretty girl so I went to talk to her." He said with a huge smile. Ran and Sonoko missed the sarcasm that dripped from his tone of voice.

"Aww what where? Let me meet her! I have a wedding to plan." Sonoko sputtered out already thinking of the many people she could call to get Conan's wedding ready when he grew old enough for that.

Ran just rolled her eyes although she had to smile a little at Sonoko's naiveness. She knew that Conan was lying obviously and she gave him another 'tell me the truth' look. Conan returned a sheepish smile and Sonoko a slightly judging look.

"I went to get the jewel back from Kid." Conan muttered. Ran shook her head at this.

"Conan how many times do I have to say to let the authorities handle these things it's their business not ours." Ran's showed pure worriedness and Conan again felt a pang of guilt run through him. Ever since he, Shinichi, had been gone for the year and a half that he had, Ran seemed to be more protective of Conan more than ever. It's like she was afraid to loose another person she cares about in her life. _I'm sorry Ran, I'm really sorry._ Conan thought solemnly.

Sonoko oblivious of the mood ask Conan where the emerald was and Conan fishes it out of his pocket handing it to her. She looked at it for awhile and said "how'd you even get it back from him?"

"I pushed him off of the roof." Conan deadpanned. Sonoko's eyes bulged wide and she yelled, "what!"

Conan just smirked and Sonoko once again had a comical annoyed face on. She was about to whack Conan, but Ran stopped her saying that Conan was just a kid and was just playing around. Although she did turned to Conan and told him not to make jokes like that.

Still fuming, Sonoko marched the emerald to her uncle who was standing nearby. "Ne, Oji-sama, the brat with the glasses brought the emerald back from Kid." She said handing over the emerald to him.

"Did he manage to trap Kid too?" Jirokichi asked looking around excitedly. Sonoko shook her head and Jirokichi deflated but brightened back up almost immediately saying loudly, "next time! Next time I'll have an even better plan to capture Kid than this one!"

Sonoko just smiled sweetly at her uncle and said "I'm sure you will uncle." He beamed brightly at that.

After the jewel was confirmed as returned to Inspector Nakamori, which consisted of grumbles and complaints about Kid and not being able to arrest him again, the task force and Inspector left.

"Ahh, I'm really hungry." Sonoko said as she walked back to Ran and Conan. Ran held onto Conan like a teddy bear again in fears of him running off and disappearing once again. To prove her point in being hungry, Sonoko's stomach growled loudly. She gave the two a cheeky embarrassed grinned and shrugged. Ran just smiled and nodded in agreement. All they had was a bowl of ramen the whole day and both Ran and Conan were dying of hunger too. Still holding Conan tight to her, the three of them got into a taxi.

Going to their local fast food joint, WcMondald's, to be precise, they sat down to eat their food. Sonoko gulped down her burger in less than a minute flat. _She must have been really hungry._ Conan and Ran thought simultaneously both with identical comical eye twitching expressions on their faces.

"What? Eat your food before I eat it all for you." Sonoko said taking another huge bite from her second burger.

Ran and Conan both grabbed their own burgers and took huge bites out of it as well at Sonoko's threat.

Just as they were about to finish up their meal, they heard police cars driving pass. Quickly jumping out of his seat, Conan ran up to the window to look at the scene before him. He spotted officer Sato's and officer Takagi's car driving pass, sirens wailing and blaring cutting through the dark night time streets.

"Isn't there a bank down the street?" Ran muttered quietly as she went to stand next to Conan to look out the window too. Sonoko who came up beside Ran nodded; then realization hit her like a two million pound truck.

Her high pitched scream sent everyone's head turning her way, and Makoto, who was all the way across the country felt a great need to go back home all of a sudden. _I wonder if Sonoko is alright_ he thought. Ran gave her friend a worried look, "you okay?"

"No! Ran! If that bank has been robbed then that means...that means...a third of my family's fortune...it's gonna…" Sonoko whispered to Ran, and she just nodded.

Suddenly she grabbed Sonoko and Conan by the hand and dragged them out of the door.

"Ah, wait a minute Ran!" Sonoko yelled as she was dragged along.

At the same time Conan also said "wait, Ran-neechan."

"Where are you taking us?" Conan and Sonoko both said confused out of their minds at Ran's sudden decision the take a midnight run.

Ran said nothing in response but just kept dragging them down the street following the string of police cars. _Is she taking us to the bank? And she told me not to get in the way of the police and to stay away from trouble,_ Conan thought sullenly to himself. _What is this girl thinking?_ Sonoko thought as she tried to catch her breath since Ran wouldn't slow down.

When Sonoko and Conan were just about to collapse from exhaustion, Ran halted to a stop causing the other two to nearly trip and fall.

"Maybe we should have taken a cab." Ran muttered bending down with hands on her knees to catch her breath.

"You think!" Sonoko exclaimed, "Ran why did you just drag us out here all of a sudden it's not like you to do so."

Ran nodded as an answer but said, "I just thought you would feel better if you saw the criminal captured, I know I would." She explained looking a little sheepish at her rash action. Conan who had been forgotten while Ran and Sonoko were talking, gladly took the opportunity to sneak near the bank to see what was going on.

Officers Takagi and Sato stood outside waiting for the command to charge in while the whole swat team knelt surrounding the area, ready to take aim at the robbers once they were able to get them out. Megure was on standby as well determining what to do.

Conan surveyed the scene for a bit and thought with a sigh although he was a little excited about the situation, _looks like they are going to need my help again_.

Peering closely into the scene ahead, Conan saw four robbers each armed with several different types of handguns, rifles, and shotguns. The criminal closest to the doorway was holding a double barrel shotgun, while the other two holding the hostages at bay were holding a bolt action rifle and the robber's partner a semi-automatic. The last robber was standing by the counter having the bank manager put the cash in the in the case.

"Hurry it up." Said the robber in front of the bank manager as he pointed his revolver at him egging him to put the money in much faster.

Still standing by outside, Takagi asked Inspector Megure, "what are we going to do Inspector? We can't just wait for them to clear out all the money and leave."

Inspector Megure nodded, but answered "I'm thinking. We obviously can't just go in right now, they have hostages."

Takagi looked back into the bank forlornly, he really wished that there was something that he could do to help those poor innocent people.

From across the alleyway of the bank, there stood a lone figure, clad in all in black, and grinning at the scene.

The gears in Conan's mind turned rapidly as he played through a series of options he could add in his plan.

Letting the criminals walk out and leave themselves was an option, but he'd be risking the lives of the hostages, _no that was unacceptable_ he decided.

His mind raced through ideas on how he could lure the robbers out without harming the hostages and that meant getting all attention to turn towards something else. _But what_ he thought, _what could cause such a huge distraction, what can catch everyone's attention._

Conan looked around surveying the area. _No, the police would only cause panic to the robbers,_ he continued his search for some form of distraction. He looked over in Ran and Sonoko's direction but decided with a firm no, that he wasn't going to put them into danger no matter what, especially Ran.

For awhile, Conan had noticed that there was a shadowy figure standing from across the bank. _An_ _accomplice?_ He thought, but then again that person had been standing there idle for a while now. He didn't look like the many onlookers who were scattered about standing several feet away from the bank, ready to run into hiding in case a shootout started.

He couldn't see the person clearly as he was hidden in the shadows away from the moonlight. Debating whether or not to approach the potentially harmless and or dangerous person, Conan decided to map out and organize his plan first.

He needed to get the criminals away from the innocent hostages inside and somehow intercept their guns with no mishaps and that will be the hardest part he observed.

Across the bank, the shadow like figure watched Conan closely, observing his movements and wondering what the little detective was going to do about the situation before hand.

Putting his chin between his index finger and thumb, his signature thinking pose, Conan decided that maybe they could ambush the thiefs or maybe he could go in himself and knock them all out. He could shoot roughly three soccer balls per two seconds and that could knock out three of them already, the last robber, he could shoot another soccer ball at him when he is distracted by his colleges sudden collapse he decided with a firm nod that he could do just that. Now the only issue was to sneak in and not get caught.

Just as he was about to carry out his plan, he remembered the figure in the alleyway. He considered the idea that if that person was an accomplice of the criminals in the bank then he would contact his colleges if he saw Conan sneaking away. He can't move out of the way to sneak in either, that person had been watching Conan very closely and if he moved out of the way then that would alert the person.

He ran a hand through his hair and exhale deeply. There has to be a way to do this, safely, without harming other people.

The person on the other side however, was quite enjoying seeing the miniature detective's indecision, although he wished that the modern day Sherlock Holmes would at least be quicker in his decision to help because the longer the wait the longer those poor people would be in danger and even in some cases be in danger of losing their lives.

When he saw that Conan made no move to do anything as the small detective that resumed his thinking pose, he sighed and in a puff of dark gray smoke, he disappeared and reappeared once again beside the detective.

"So? What's your plan?" He asked tilting his head to one side his hood obscuring the majority of his face, leaving only from the tip of the nose and down to his neck exposed. A playful smirk accommodated the question and Conan, who wanted to facepalm into a brick wall more than ever for not having guessed the person's identity sooner, sighed and looked up eyes darkening as he frowned at the new yet not new comer.

 _How did I not deduce who you were earlier._ He mentally berated himself.

"Why are you here. Go home, I can just report you to the police you know." Conan grumbled but silently hoped that the person would have some idea to help the hostages and maybe have a better idea than he does at the moment.

"Aww, your so mean tantei-kun. Besides, we had a deal remember?" Kaito said. He had changed out of his Kid attire a while back.

After he had left the roof and landed, he resumed a civilian outfit and blended into the crowd, and of course on his way home, he found this little ruckus of a scene of a bank robbery.

Conan gave Kid a side glance and mumbled something about deals being off after he left and that their current situation doesn't apply to that deal.

Kaito just tilted his head in the direction of the bank, inquiring Conan on what he was going to do yet again, his hood never leaving his head and still obscured his face from view.

Conan heaved a heavy grave sigh as he shook his head explaining to Kid his situation, although he had no clue as to why. Perhaps he was desperate for the help he could attain.

"I did think of two things," Conan said quietly, he was still unsure of his plan, but it had to be carried out sooner better than later. Kaito nodded his head to indicate that he was listening. Conan continued, "first, I thought of just letting them gather all the money they can and once they sneak out the back or wherever they escape route is, I can have the police on standby and ready to ambush them. Except, there are several things wrong with that." Kaito nodded again, this time in agreement.

"True," he muttered as he too surveyed the scene unfolding ahead. The robbers were about packed and ready by then.

"You know, they could take a hostage with them if they go out the back door, I mean the police officers might more than likely have the back surrounded as well. The only way for them to leave here unscathed is to being a hostage or for better results hostages." Kaito said sounding thoughtful. He usually doesn't bother to act the part of detective even if he had the mind for it, he prefers to use that for planning his heists.

Conan nodded in agreement but countered, "that would also slow them down. If I wanted to get away quickly without to much trouble I wouldn't bring hostages with me."

Kaito hummed a response, and Conan had no idea what that meant at all. Then suddenly Kaito said "times a tickin, meitantei-kun." As an afterthought, Kaito asked, "what was your second plan?"

 _Seeing as the first one will be a total flop,_ Kaito thought silently to himself with a mental chuckle.

Conan sighed again, "I was going to go in and kick soccer balls at them, I think if I do it fast enough, I can knock at least three of them max and take down the last one when he is distracted by his fellow members sudden collapse." He shrugged when Kaito gave him a possible judging look as he couldn't see through the hooded shadowed face.

Kaito made a moved to think for awhile, and finally said, "that second plan of yours, if both of us sneak in then we have a better chance of taking them down. As I'm sure you can handle two of them and I can handle the other two."

"By have you thought of making a huge distraction to catch their attention and counter attack them from the inside?" Kaito asked crouching down to be eye level with Conan.

Conan nodded and said, "I did but there no one who could distract them and I don't want to risk people's lives by doing that. Too big or much of a distraction could cause them to lose their cool and shoot at random." Kaito again nodded then smirked as a plan began to form in his mind. It was time to plan another heist.

"I think I have an idea." Kaito said smirking still. Conan looked weary of him but listened anyways.

"So here's what we do." Kaito leaned in to whisper into Conan's ears. "We…" he whispered, Conan nodded. _This could work,_ the minuscule teen thought with a slight smirk of his own. The two then nodded at each other and got about to carry out their plan.

Conan headed in the building first, using the entrance that Kaito had told him about after a quick text to who Conan assumes is his assistant in his heists on a regular basis. Kaito on the other hand, opted to be the one outside to create the distraction using several magic trick set ups that he keeps handy with him.

Managing to get into the building safely, and without becoming seen or caught, he really needs to thank Kid's assistant someday, if they ever get to meet, for making this so much easier for him, Conan hid nearby the criminals in question and looked at the hostages. _Just hang on awhile longer, we're here to save you._ He thought biting the side of his lip in anticipation, he really hopes that this plan is going to work.

He then crouched into position waiting for his partner in crime and to determine who best to knock out with his soccer balls.

Minutes passed and Kaito, satisfied with his beautiful art, snuck into the bank under the noses of the policemen standing guard outside. Locating the small teenage detective, Kaito came nearer and put a hand over Conan's mouth to silence him as he announce his arrival.

Conan pulled away Kid's hand and looked back at the magician and they nodded. It was time to begin. As if on cue, Kaito's previous setup from outside burst into life sending colorful sparks everywhere all the way up high in the sky, and a high voltage electrical current burned out the lights in the bank.

Sonoko and Ran, the whole entire police force and robbers looked about them.

"Woow, it's so pretty!" Sonoko exclaimed and Ran who was looking at the sky in awe mumbled an agreement.

"What happened to the lights?" The robber near the door asked sounding slightly panicked.

"Hold your grounds!" The leader of the criminals snapped, "and you" he said jabbing his gun at the banker, "hurry up!"

From outside, Inspector Megure looked about trying to figure out what to do with the suddenly darkened bank.

"Inspector." Sato said holding up her gun and looked just about ready to charge in. Megure shook his head no, now that the bank has lost power they couldn't see inside and had no idea what would happen if they suddenly charged in.

 _This is really bad_ , Inspector Megure thought brain racking for a solution.

"What do you think?" Kaito asked grinning brightly, proud of his handy work.

Startled, one of the robbers guarding the hostages jumped and accidentally pull the trigger nearly hitting one of the hostage in the front. Luckily the man was safe thanks to Conan's quick thinking.

Whipping his head around to glare at Kaito, he hissed, "some distraction."

Kaito had the audacity to look sheepish as he put a hand to the back his head and gave a nervous laugh. "Sorry seemed like a good idea at the time."

Conan just rolled his eyes as he jerked his head towards the robbers telling him to go take out one of the guards and the one pointing the gun at the banker.

The leader of the group told his members to focus, "it's probably just a dumb kid playing with fireworks close by and somehow destroyed the electrical current, if anything the police with be drawn to that and forget us for awhile."

 _Not very likely,_ Conan thought as he got into position and turned the voltage up and his shoes. Kaito on the other hand, had a sleeping gas spray bottle in hand quietly taking steps near the leader of the robbers, the one pointing the gun at the banker. Annoyed at being called a dumb kid, he thought _how rude, I'll make sure to give you an extra dose of sleeping gas._

The robbers, unaware of their near impending doom, waited for the banker who was putting in the last of the money in the bag. Kaito's stealth was no joke as he was able to creep up slowly and quietly to the leader and of course, sprayed him with the extra dosage of sleeping as he had promised and quickly moved on to his next target who noticed and took aim at him but Kaito was quicker to strike.

At the same time as Kaito was knocking out the two, Conan sent two well aim soccer balls at the remains two knocking them out completely. Satisfied with their handy work, the two high fived each other.

The police outside took notice of the sudden thudding sounds coming from within the bank that Kaito and Conan had caused. _That's_ _it,_ Inspector Megure thought, they couldn't just stand outside and just surround the bank any longer.

He gave the officers and swat team his signals and they got up and charged in.

Kaito and Conan took notice of the sound coming from outside, and with a quick nod to each other, they ran and snuck out the same way they came in, obstructed from the view of everyone about.

As they left, the lights, as Kaito had intended, turned back on at the snap of his fingers. Conan just blink a bit amused although he didn't show it.

Slowing down and standing in the alleyway from across the bank, they watched the baffled police free the hostages and take the tied up unconscious crooks away.

As the knocked out bodies were removed, a small white paper drifted to the ground. Officer Sato noticed it and picked it up reading it over, and she quickly took it to Inspector Megure and Takagi to show them the note.

"I think a thank you is in order for these two." She said although she couldn't really tell who they were, only knowing that they had saved the hostages and stopped the bank robbers from hurting anyone and running away with the money.

Takagi too, nodded but had no idea who the two were, as the note didn't state their names and only left a message and their first or last initial.

Inspector Megure took the note to examine it after Takagi and smile slightly, there was only one person he knew who wrote his 'S' like that, and it was no other than Kudou Shinichi himself. _Looks like you've saved us all again Kudou-kun,_ Megure thought in higher spirits than prior to reading the note. He also remembered that Shinichi had always asked him to keep him out of the public eye, which must have been why he didn't show himself even after stopping the bank robbers Megure concluded. Inspector Megure had no clue what Shinichi had gotten himself into, but he sure was thankful for all the times Shinichi lent the police force a hand in solving their cases, problems; he was truly grateful.

Tucking the note away, he organized the hostages out the door after they had been set free of their bondages and went to take care of the banker and the employees, making sure everything was in order before the police left.

In the alleyway, Kaito and Conan continued to watched the police at work from across the bank.

"So...what now?" Kaito asked stuffing his hands in his jacket pocket. Conan just shrug not knowing what to do. _Go home I guess_ he thought to himself although he felt as if going home right away won't sit right with him, so he stayed waiting for the other to break the silence once more.

"Umm...that was fun?" Kaito tried, the silence between was getting kind of awkward.

"Fun?" Conan muttered, at last saying something, "no, you nearly killed someone with the fireworks."

"I needed that for the blackout," Kaito protested, although he didn't deny it, he knew it was wrong and that they could have done without the flare, so who was he trying to impress setting up a show like that. He was Kaitou Kid and Kuroba Toichi's son, he could've and should've done better than that.

"I'm sorry," Kaito murmured quietly, surprising Conan with the solemn tone and sincerity that it carried. Somehow, Conan felt the need to take back what he just said and console Kid, so he did just that.

"It was really cool though, the fireworks, it's nice, to see things like that once in awhile." Conan said quietly and smirked when Kaito jerked his head down towards Conan possibly giving a quizzical look behind his hood.

Kaito nodded, and to light the mood up, he asked "should we celebrate with more fireworks for a job well done?"

Conan just rolled his eyes and shook his head, a hint of a small smile flitted across his face as he crosses his arms and leaned against the wall relaxing, and for the longest time in forever, letting his guard down, even for a short moment.

Once again, the two collapsed in companionable silence, content with just watching the freed people and police cars driving away with the criminals.

All of a sudden Kaito broke the silence, he must have been bored not teasing Conan every chance he gets to.

"You have a knack for getting into trouble don't you, tantei-kun." Kaito said smirking behind his hood. Conan just shrugged, it's not like he should be denying it, it was a known fact that he gets into trouble a lot by many who know him well, or are discovering his knack for trouble.

Intent on teasing Conan, Kaito pouted, -face still covered with the hood pulled low over his face- at Conan's lack of reaction from his taunting.

"You're no fun" he muttered to himself. Conan picked up on what Kaito had just said and frowned. _Is he calling me boring?_ Conan thought, for some reason he didn't like that at all.

"What was that?" Conan asked raising an eyebrow at Kid and crossing his arms.

"Uh, nothing, nothing, nothing at all," Kaito said waving his hands from left to right in a criss cross type of motion to emphasize that he meant nothing of it. Conan just gave him a judging look.

"Yeah right," Conan whispered under his breath.

Kaito didn't just stop there in his teasing, he decided that he should at least pull out his ace card before leaving for the night. Chuckling a bit manically to himself in his mind, he couldn't wait to see Conan's reaction to this as he had been near Conan after the heist and heard the small detective's conversation with Ran and Sonoko before they left to go eat.

"Ne, tantei-kun, do you really think that I'm a pretty girl?" Kaito asked putting his hands up together in a v shape as he cupped his face, fingers pressed slightly against his cheekbones. He even fluttered his eyelashes flirtatiously to tease Conan even more, but he couldn't see that due to the hood being pulled low over Kaito's face to obscure his identity from one very curious miniature detective and other passerbys.

Blinking once, realization hit Conan and staring ahead wide eyed he sputtered, "I...I...what? no… I, no.."

Kaito just gave a slightly maniacal laugh that was a trademark to his Kid persona and shook his head enjoying Conan spurge of reactions.

 _When the hell did he hear all these things?_ Conan thought with a slight touch of deadpan and annoyance to it. After he had managed to stop from his onslaught of stammers, Conan glared daggers at Kaito and turned his on heels muttering his goodbyes for the night.

Kaito just smile as he watch Conan return to Ran and Sonoko, who yelled at and reprimanded him for going off again. Shaking his head again, Kaito headed in the opposite direction down the alleyway and thought silently to himself _good night, detective._

The girls had gotten Takagi and Sato to give them a lift home. Ran and Conan went with Takagi and Sonoko with Sato. After Ran and Sonoko wished their wells beings with each other and the officers, Ran grabbed Conan and pulled him into the back seat of Takagi's car. Sitting alone by himself in the back, Conan thought quietly to himself _good night, moonlight magician._

* * *

 **Kaito's & Conan's Note: **

_Inspector Megure,_

 _We have taken care of these bank robbers, so there is no further need to worry about the issue at hand. Also, no need to thank us, we were just passing by and thought that it would be nice if we helped you out._

 _Best of luck,_

 _K. & S._

* * *

 **AN:** Okay, so this is part two to chapter four and first I'd like to clear up some things I might have made a bit confusing in story and heh I'm just terrible at explaining things. So first, Ran, and that random scene where she just took off and ran, weelll, I just needed them to get to that scene so yeaaaahh, anyway I implore you all to ignore the uncharacteristicness of that part. Please I beg you to. And second, I'm not sure how clear I made it but Kaito had his hood on the whole time and never took it off so Conan still doesn't know who Kaitou Kid truly is. Another thing, Conan signed the note after Kaito so he didn't know that Conan signed the note with an 'S'. Also sorry if the ending was pointless or rushed but I wasn't sure how to go about my many thought process, as I said this is the first fan fiction I have written and I'm still getting used to writing like this. And yeah I'm just going to refer to Kaito as Kaito when he's like in civilian attire and him as Kid/Kaitou Kid when he is as his alter ego. Sorry, one more thing before I stop talking and annoy you guys but was I repetitive in some parts, cuz I feel like I do that so if anyone does notice that go ahead and call me out and I'll try to work on not repeating needless things or words in my story in the future if I can help it. Last but not least, thank you to everyone who has read my story so far and I do hope that I can continue with updates maybe weekly or monthly depending. I hope you all enjoyed this and I'll be back with chapter 5.（＾∇＾）


	7. Chapter 5

He woke up to a very loud and annoying alarm the following morning. He hardly was able to get any sleep, not to mention, that he came home really late last night. Grumbling, he pulled his blankets high over his head and snuggled back into his bed to get a little bit more sleep, if possible. Unfortunately for him, his personal alarm clock would not let him ignore the courteous wake-up call. Grabbing the blanket off him and tossing it on the hardwood floor, and then grabbed his ankle and dragged him to the ground, with which he landed with a loud thud. His eyes bulged wide open at the sudden movement of his unceremonious descent to the ground. He clenched his jaws tight together and glared daggers at the person who threw him to the ground.

Rubbing the bump on his head where he had hit it while landing hard on the ground, he grumbled, "hey! What the hell Aoko! That really hurt! Why are you even here?"

Aoko raised herself to her full height and put her hands on her on hips looking down at Kaito in a high and mighty manner. She frown down at Kaito, who was still sitting on the ground and childishly sticking out his tongue at his childhood friend blowing a raspberry at her.

"It's Monday," Aoko announced, "time for school." She jabbed her index finger in the direction of Kaito's alarm clock which sat innocently on his nightstand beside the bed. Kaito lazily shifted his eyes towards the clock, and blinked. If he didn't get ready for school immediately he'd be late, and that wouldn't have been a real issue for him -since he can almost always talk himself out of things with his charm- if only Hakuba wasn't there to constantly remind him that he believes he knows who Kaitou Kid truly is. Yes, Hakuba Saguru was a constant problem, one of which Kaito would gladly ship out of the galaxy all together ridding him of some of his troubles and sometimes worries.

On another note, if he came into class late today, of all days, then that would just be another excuse for Hakuba to add to his seemingly never ending list of evidence that he is Kaitou Kid.

If he knew any better, that he'd bet millions of dollars that Hakuba would probably just say something along the lines of the fact that Kaito was so and so -insert the amount of minutes, seconds, and milliseconds- late, was most likely due to the fact that he was out conducting his heist late last night; which was true, but Kaito preferred to believe he is innocent until that bastard Hakuba could throw hard cold evidence at him.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Kaito pushed himself off the ground and mumbled "okay, okay I'll get ready for school." He sounded like a child who was dreading the entrance to a haunted house or whatnot.

Aoko nodded, satisfied with the answer he gave her and muttered, "hurry up then, I'll have breakfast ready downstairs," and down the stairs she went, mind racing to think of something that would take approximately five minutes to make at most. They were running out of time and she had a record for never being late to class to keep.

Upstairs, Kaito let out a huge yawn just as Aoko had left the door. He came home around roughly 2:30 AM last night and hadn't been able to sleep until four in the morning. Why? He didn't know, but maybe it had something to do with a certain someone that was around three feet tall and extremely quick witted.

Participating in the capture of the bank robbers drained him quite a bit, but at the same time, he had to admit that it was actually fun to work with Conan. _And for once, he wasn't kicking the soccer balls at me while we're at the same place,_ Kaito thought a hint of a small smile played on his lips as he entered the bathroom near his room a little ways down the hall.

As he brushed his teeth, he wondered if his next heist should be held somewhere Conan could easily come to as well. _Maybe, if the jewel is something similar to what I'm looking for._ He thought as he rinsed and washed his face and exited the bathroom, getting ready to put on his uniform for school.

Changing quickly, an easy feat for him to do, Kaito practically just waved his hand and voila instant outfit change. As he walk passed the hallway bathroom to go down stairs, he popped in one last time to run his hand through his spiky wild hair, he thought _eh, good enough._

Meanwhile, Aoko who was currently downstairs determining what her quick and easy breakfast would be, looked through Kaito's fridge and cupboards. She allowed a smile when she found a box of poptarts. _This will do,_ she thought as she took out two bags and opening them, she put the poptarts in the toaster. While waiting for the poptarts, she quickly looked at the kitchen clock, if they didn't hurry they'd really be late.

Then her mind drifted to yesterday night, the night where Kid announced his heist was to be. Her father had came home late and even more frustrated than usual. Not only did he not catch the troublesome thief, but she felt as if Kid was making a fool out of her father every time he held a heist.

"Why can't you just get caught already." She whispered silently to herself, she wanted nothing more than for her father to finally be able to relax and not have to worry about when Kid will next show up again. With all this business about Kaitou Kid, her dad just wasn't around anymore, she was always alone except for the occasional company from Kaito, who always made sure he was there for her when she needed someone to talk to or lean onto or just to be there for her since childhood.

She was brought out of her reverie, when the sound of the poptarts pooped out of the toaster, warm and ready to be eaten. Taking a plate from the cupboard above, she place the four poptarts on the plate neatly and set it on the kitchen counter.

As Kaito headed down the stairs, he smelled something sweet and smiled, Aoko really knew him well. Kaito did after all like having something a little if not quite a ways sweet in the morning.

He entered the kitchen, all in uniform and school bag at the ready spotted the beautiful plate of poptarts that sat tantalizingly on the kitchen counter. Kaito grabbed two of them and wolfed one down in the blink of an eye.

Aoko just shook her head, grabbed the school bag from the table and muttered something that sounded really similar to "stupid Kaito."

Kaito frowned as he playfully bumped her at the doorway and said "aohoko" with a smirk.

From behind, he could tell that she was boring a hole through his back and possibly wishing that she had a mop to whack him with, which made him shiver just a slight bit, because mops hurt more than what people can imagine. And yes, he's been on the receiving end of Aoko's mop fury and he can vouch, it's dangerous, scary, and quite possibly life threatening when she is completely angered. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't going to tease Aoko, so a quick comment on her underwear color for that day-loudly out in the streets for everyone to hear I might add- sent them on their typical chase and run away from the scary angry childhood friend began.

Said game also ended when the two had reach the the entrance of the school building and Aoko nearly ran right into one Koizumi Akako. Kaito had the grace, and value for his previous life, to dodge and run through the doors entering into the school building and poking his head out only to grin evilly at Aoko and her near misfortune.

Akako raised one perfectly manicured eyebrow at the two as she folded her arms together and tapped a perfectly manicured nail against her upper arm, 'patiently' waiting for an explanation, to which Kaito kindly let Aoko take care of as he had dashed into the classroom before Akako could use her magic against him.

She frowned at the duo once more as Aoko manage to apologize greatly, mainly on Kaito's behalf and they headed into the classroom together.

As they entered, Hakuba, the diligent student that he is, was already sitting in his desk with notebook, pencil, and eraser at the ready waiting for class to begin.

Kaito already there had opened up his tablet reading up on the latest news about Kid's heist last night.

As Aoko and Akako entered, heads turned in Akako's direction, girls jealous, while boys with comical heart shape eyes except one Kuroba Kaito, who was still focus on his tablet. Akako frowned at that as she flicked her long black hair back, eyes flashing red with slight anger at being ignored. Aoko, oblivious to Akako's 'little' issue, strode over to Kaito and pulled the tablet out of his hands reading the title of the article he was reading aloud. Kaito made a move to grab it back from her, but she moved out of the way.

Hakuba, unable to keep his nose out of it, walked over to Aoko and peeked at the tablet. He frowned when he read the article's content, but smirked at looked up at Kaito, his eyes mocking and laughing when he read the end of it.

Akako also went over to look at what the two were so happy about.

"Kaitou Kid makes appearance in Beika last night." She mumbled the title. Skimming down the article, she continued, "Kid takes jewel from polices' nose, engulfing them with smoke to make his escape." She looked up at Kaito at that part and raised a well manicured eyebrow once again. Kaito just frowned at that and grumbled about Hakuba and Akako mistaking him for the wrong person.

Aoko continued after Akako and read the end, "Inspector Nakamori takes back the jewel from Kid leaving him to go once again empty handed with the help of Edogawa Conan, a small primary school child. Kid had once again been stopped by the police and the elementary school kid, often associated with Suzuki Jirokichi." She smiled with pride at that part.

Kaito just rolled his eyes after Aoko had finished reading. _It's not that tantei-kun stopped me from taking the jewel, he literally asked for it to save himself from that Mouri girl._ Kaito sighed inwardly, wishing that the media would at least get their facts right.

Kaito reclaimed his tablet as the teacher walked in and the class quiet down taking their seats getting ready for class, except Kaito who had other things plaguing his mind at the moment.

Kaito sat in his seat by the window abnormally quiet that day, making the teacher and students more weary of him than usual. The three, Aoko, Akako, and Hakuba exchanged looks.

"What's wrong with him?" Akako muttered jerking her head in Kaito's general direction. Hakuba and Aoko just shrugged having no clue to what Kaito's sudden muteness could possibly mean. Aoko worried for her friend's health, got up and checked Kaito's temperature shaking him out of his thoughts momentarily.

Frowning as he pushed her away, he said "what the hell, Aoko. A little personal space would be nice."

"I was just checking to see if you were sick!" Aoko retorted placing her hands on her hips now glaring at Kaito for pushing away her hospitality.

"What are you even talking about. Are you even hearing yourself? I'm perfectly fine, not sick at all." He said with a tinge of deadpan and sarcasm, mocking Aoko.

Again, Aoko frowned saying "you were sitting there super quiet. It's kinda scary." She made a face at Kaito at the last phrase.

Hakuba decided to join in too adding his two pence, he said, "what were you thinking about? Planning another heist?" He whispered that as Kaito gave him a death glare and rolled his eyes. _This bastard_ , Kaito thought with a comical angry eye twitch.

Just then a thought hit him like lightning and he smiled an evil maniacal villain like smile. Turning around in his seat, Kaito said with a smirk, "actually, I was thinking about what I should do to redecorate this class and it's occupants."

"What do you think about neon pink hair?" He asked indigo eyes boring a delighted maniac like tinged to them. Hakuba gulped and looked sharply away, he was so not going to engage in this any further lest he suffer from super hard to get out dye just as last time. He didn't want to go through that ever again. His hair was a bright leaf green color for a month last time and he had acquired the nickname of broccoli head during his green hair episode. Aoko and Akako smirk slightly remembering that hair incident as well.

Seeing that Hakuba would not annoy him any further, Kaito's mind involuntarily drifted back to the clouds.

There was always something about Conan that struck him as odd, but he just couldn't figure out what it is, and he had never bothered to care before, he just always assumed that Conan was some super smart kid. _What do you call kids like that again?_ He thought resting his cheek on his fist as he looked out the window.

 _Hmm, was it prodigy? Yeah, I think that's the word,_ he mulled over the thought although it sounded like a solution that was just there, no evidence to back it up.

Conan was smart, extremely quick witted, so he's a prodigy plain as day, but Kaito felt as if there's something else about Conan that made the word false when used to describe him.

 _There's got to be something else that I'm missing, but what?_ Kaito thought his brow furrowed in concentration as he racked his brain for other explanations but only was able to come up with one, and that was that Conan was an adult stuck in a child's body; or actually the miniature detective had the mind of an older person but is physically in the form of a child.

 _Okaaay, that makes no sense at all. Actually that is impossible, he's a kid, a primary school student, not a high schooler._ Kaito closed his eyes and let his brain rest from the troublesome thought of sorting out facts and data just to deduce who Conan really is.

If Conan was there and hearing all of this himself, he might have quoted Sherlock Holmes on this as he was such an avid fan of the famous detective. _**When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains must be the truth**_. Of course, Kaito doesn't know this as he more of a fan of Arsene Lupin the great gentleman thief, and because detective work just wasn't his thing.

Deciding to stay away from all the detective work that he could handle for one day, Kaito decided that maybe things are just best left as is and that meddling into it would be troublesome.

 _So tantei-kun is a prodigy, even if he's seven and can outwit most adults, that's what is means anyways._ And with that the thought of the small detective flew out of his mind for the remainder of the day.

All the way back in Beika, at Teitan Elementary School, Conan let out a sneeze. _I swear, I'm getting sick,_ he thought grumpily rubbing his nose. He had been sneezing and getting chills since Shinozaki's uncle's birthday party, or yesterday to be precise.

From the row next to him, Haibara looked over eyebrow quirked up in a question. Conan looked over his face giving of a miserable vibe. Ignoring that fact, Haibara lean over and whispered so only Conan could hear, "so how was your date with Kaitou Kid last next?"

As she pulled back to her seat, her lips harbored the most evil of smirks that only she can seem to pull off.

As Haibara ended her question, Conan jumped up and slammed his hands on the desktop, yelling loudly, "what!" He looked extremely alarm but the next turned on Haibara with evil murderous eyes, and mind probably plotting her demise as he can literally get away with murder.

Startled at the sudden sound, Kobayashi Sumiko Sensei and the whole class all turned heads to look at Conan.

He had already sat back down in his seat, but at the quizzical stare of everyone, he face planted right onto his desk, thinking of various ways to get Haibara back for that remark.

But as he was thinking -plotting- his revenge, a sudden thought hit him; _why was he so bothered by what Haibara had said? True, Kaitou Kid was amazing, really cool and amazing actually, but that didn't mean anything and absolutely had nothing to do with Haibara making fun of him. So why? Why did he react like that._

Conan frowned into his desk, as his face was still attach to it, and began to mull over this new thought process. _What could it possibly be?_ He thought propping his chin on his hand, now staring blankly ahead. Ayumi looked back at Conan worriedly from her seat up front in class.

By lunchtime, Conan was still racking his brain for a solution. Shaking his head in frustration, Conan let out a tired groan as he picked at his food.

Looking up at the food abandoned on Conan's plate, just waiting to be eaten, Genta asked,"hey Conan are you going to eat that or what?" He eyed the sandwich greedily waiting to snatch it if Conan wasn't going to consume it anytime soon.

Mutsuhiko frowned at his friends and raised his index finger up in a scholarly manner saying, "Genta you shouldn't take Conan-kun's food away now of all times can't you see he's obviously sick and not feeling well." Genta just grumbled about wasted food, then Mitsuhiko added, "and Conan-kun you should be eating to keep your strength, your body is at a critical condition and you'll need supplements."

Conan just responded with a deadpan gaze and Ayumi joined in too, "Yeah Conan-kun you need to eat up and grow big and strong so you can protect me when some bad guys attack me." She look really determined as she said that and Haibara nodded in agreement with another one of her evil smirks.

"Yes, by all means Edogawa-kun, eat up so you can grow up big and strong so you can protect us." The sarcasm and mockery in her voice was evident, but only Conan notice and gave her a dirty evil eyed looked. Genta and Mitsuhiko glared at Conan when they heard Ayumi's and Haibara's comment.

"We'll protect you girls too." They said determined gaze a blazing. Conan just rolled his eyes at them while Haibara smile nodding her appreciation to the two. Ayumi smiled sweetly at them and said, "thanks, you guys are really sweet," the two adopted proud looks and blushes on their faces, the Ayumi continued, "but I want Conan-kun to protect me most. Won't you Conan-kun?" She asked giving him an imploring large eyed look, which obviously had no affect on him as he just nodded without blinking an eye and lost interest in the three actual kids after that.

 _What I wouldn't give to be me again._ He thought with a sigh. Haibara looked slightly in Conan's direction as she ate, seemingly knowing what is making troubling her fellow APTX victim sigh like that. _Just hang on Kudou-kun, I might have another prototype antidote for you yet,_ she said this to herself.

After Conan had left last Saturday after his visit, Haibara spent hours in her lab researching. She had used the data from what she had discovered of the case where she had turned back by drinking baijiu, and when she had given Conan the first prototype. For some reason each time that Conan had taken the antidote, it would lessen the time that he would remain as his former self, it's possible that his body just adapts to the the chemicals in the drug each dose, so if she can stop it from resisting and becoming immune, then she is one step closer to making an actual antidote.

Pasting on her usual passive aggressive expression, she looked back at the diminutive detective who had by now given up on eating his meal and has given it to Genta, who was more than grateful to accept the food.

Just then the lunch bell rang and it was time for them to head back to class. As they were walking back, Conan pulled Haibara to the back of the group. He then proceeded to whisper, "hey, mind if I come over after school?"

"You're not going to ask about the APTX antidote again are you? Because you know I can't progress much in just two days." Haibara whispers back sounding bored. Conan shook his head.

"I just wanted to say hi to the professor," he gave her a bright grin as he walked on ahead hand crossed behind his head to lean back a bit as he walked.

Haibara gave him a skeptical look from behind and was about to say something when Ayumi interrupted.

"Ah! Conan-kun you're heading to Agasa Hakase's house today, Ayumi wants to come too." She exclaimed and the other two boys chimed in with their choruses of cheers of agreement.

"Ai-chan? Are you okay with that?" Ayumi asked turning back to look at Haibara questioningly. She just nodded saying with a smile -or in Conan's case a smirk-, "the more the merrier." Again the three kids cheered their enthusiasm.

Conan frowned at first, _don't just go inviting yourselves._ But another thought hit him and it all just seemed too perfect and he thought with renewed cheery resolution, _actually, this could work in my favor._ He smiled slightly, unnoticed by anyone and walked into the classroom and back to his seat.

Soon, although later to Conan, repeating primary school was such a boring experience, he knew everything already, school ended.

The group left and walked down the streets making their way to the Professor's house.

As they were walking, Mitsuhiko spotted officer Takagi and and Genta followed by everyone else rush over to him and surrounded him.

"Ehh! Guys, what are you doing here?" He asked quite alarmed. Ayumi was the first to speak up as she asked, "Takagi Keiji, are you on a case? Is the bad guy around here? We can help you, right guys?" She looked back at the others. Haibara and Conan stayed silent, while Mitsuhiko and Genta nodded their heads enthusiastically.

The three of them got into a pose and yelled out, "there's no job that the detective boys can't handle, we'll solve them all!"

 _Here we go again,_ Takagi and Conan thought at the same time.

"Actually there's no new case today guys sorry," he said with an apologetic smile and rubbed the back of his head letting a nervous laugh. Then he cleared his throat and said, "I'm actually just heading back to the bank that was nearly robbed yesterday, we still have a few minor details, like paperwork to finish."

Genta gave officer Takagi a bored look and said "aww that's boring and here I thought that you police officers do fun things like solve case and chase criminals."

"You just summed up the majority of police work," Conan deadpanned quietly giving Genta a judging look. Haibara again smirked at them.

"Genta, nothing is always fun and games sometimes you need to sit and sort out your work, and that's where paperwork usually comes into play. Right Takagi Keiji?" Mitsuhiko said and Takagi nodded.

Speaking of the bank made Conan recall the night before. He and Kid had worked together to stop the robbers from getting away and saved the hostages. But remember last night's events also made him remember how much fun he had working with Kid, and he allegedly wouldn't mind working with Kid again.

 _I wonder what he does during the daytime when he's not stealing gems._ Conan thought. He had notice this during their first meeting face to face one the roof, that Kid was young, really young, possibly around his actual age or a college student at least. Except what didn't make any sense was that Kaitou Kid existed before he was even born, and had disappeared for a total of eight years only to reappear again a little bit before he shrunk.

 _That doesn't make any sense unless there are two Kaitou Kids,_ Conan thought following behind the others, officer Takagi had already left and the kids had no interests in paperwork so they decided to continue their way to the professor's house. Still in thought, Conan walk slowly behind. _But if there are two Kid then something must have happened to the first, and that most likely happened eight years ago when Kid first disappeared. Perhaps they were master and apprentice? If something happened to the master then the apprentice could then take his master's place, but the eight year time lapse, no, no, that's not it,_ Conan decided. When they neared the Professor's house, a thought hit Conan.

 _What if both Kaitous were father and son? That could make sense as the father, the first Kaitou Kid suddenly disappeared or retired and when his son was old enough, making the most sense out of the sudden disappearance for eight years as the son needed to grow up, then yes, it would all make sense. The son grew up and took over his father's place as Kaitou Kid. This,_ Conan thought, _this makes so much more sense as to why Kid looks like he's practically my age. And here I was thinking he was some old guy who didn't like aging so he disguise as a younger man._ Conan had to smile a bit at the silly thought, as he entered the Professor's house along with the others.

Haibara turned sharply around when the door had closed and everyone had entered. She observed Conan for a minute, much to his discomfort, and finally said, "you were so quiet on the way back. What have you deduced detective?"

"What?" Conan asked not following what she is saying at all. Haibara just gave him a bored look, or it could possibly be annoyed, he couldn't tell.

"You have that expression again, the one where you look like you've just solved something." Haibara said her voice as neutral as ever.

Conan stared for a moment, letting his brain process Haibara's words. Five seconds passed, and then, it clicked.

"Ah, it's nothing really. Just something trivial." Conan said as he scratched the back of his head in a carefree manner. Haibara just looked at him skeptically and shrugged, turning around to walk away. She was going to pry it out of him sooner or later anyways.

"Ai-chan! Conan-kun! Hurry up and come over here and play with us!" Ayumi called from the living room. Genta and Mitsuhiko had pulled out several different games that they could play with and set it neatly on the floor, thanks to Mitsuhiko.

Professor Agasa, seeing the kids enter had went to the kitchen to prepare some snacks for them. Seeing that as a perfect opportunity to talk to the professor, Conan announced that he will help the Professor while the others set up the games.

Walking into the kitchen, Conan greeted Professor Agasa, "hey Professor."

"Hello Shinichi, how was the heist yesterday. I heard you got involved with some bank robbery." Professor Agasa said. Conan just nodded.

Taking a seat in the kitchen, he told the Professor the tale.

"The heist was the same as always I guess, Kid shows up, we talk, fight, same old, same old. After the heist, we went to eat at WcMondald's when we heard sirens. Ran was the one who brought us there. Heh, and she told me not to meddle in police affairs."

Professor Agasa raise an eyebrow at what Conan had just said. With a skeptical look, he asked "Ran-kun? She brought you guys to the bank? It wasn't you who chased after the police cars to find out what was going on?" He sounded incredulous, it was honestly a rare and hard to believe thing after all. To answer the Professor, Conan nodded again.

"Yeah, surprisingly it was Ran, anyway I manage to stop the robbers from doing much harm with some help from Kid." Conan continued his mini anecdote.

The Professor nodded, then suddenly his mind backtracked. He had nearly missed it as Conan had said everything so nonchalantly. He looked back at Conan again and raised his eyebrows once more.

"Kid? Shinichi, I thought you said you and Kaitou Kid don't get along." Said the Professor as he put the finishing touches on the snacks.

Now Conan actually looked like he was paying attention to life, he looked over at the Professor and said, "whatever gave you that idea Hakase? I never said that. He's a good person, just annoying."

"Ah, I must have misunderstood then, you usually complained about Kid after a heist." Said the Professor scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Then he said, "it sounded as if the two of you really dislike each other."

Conan shook his head at that, then he responded saying, "no, it's just I'm probably annoyed by him outwitting me at the last minute, always getting away. That is the most annoy part about him."

Professor Agasa hummed in response as he was about ready to take the tray to the living room. At that moment, Conan remembered why he had wanted to talk to the Professor so badly. What Vermouth had said to him yesterday had really bothered him and he needed to find out.

"Hey wait, Professor." Conan said getting up from his seat as the Professor Agasa turned around with an inquiring look.

"There's something about the Black Organization that I need to check out." Conan whispered softly as he stepped closer to the Professor.

At this, Professor raised an eyebrow, but it was a warning sign to Conan as well to not do anything stupid.

"Shinichi." He said in a stern voice, but Conan interrupted quickly.

"Look yesterday when I went to the party with Ran and Ot-chan, I met Vermouth there, don't ask, I have no idea why she was there either." Conan whispered quickly at the Professor's confused look.

He didn't want to speak any louder in case Haibara would hear and that would be bad as she was very strict on plans against the Organization, lest they fall into danger.

"Anyways, she said that in a few weeks time the Organization was going to meet at the Haido Hotel for something, she wouldn't say." Conan finished and looked up at the Professor who now looked worried, but deep in thought.

"Why would she just tell you this?" He finally asked, Conan shrugged and said, "beats me, I thought it was strange too."

"As far as I know of her, it's most likely a trap so it's best we ignore it. Won't we Shinichi." Professor Agasa said giving him a look that if Conan wouldn't listen then he was going to tell Haibara and let her deal with him. Something that Conan definitely doesn't want, so he nodded in agreement, although this wasn't the end of it of course.

As the two entered the living room with the snacks, Genta grumbled and complained, "what took you guys so long I was starving over here."

"You had two servings at lunch," Conan, Haibara, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi all muttered giving Genta a pointed look. Genta just grumbled again, stating that he was still hungry.

Setting the snacks down, the Professor straightened himself, and held up his index finger and everyone groaned.

 _Not again,_ Conan and Haibara thought simultaneously. They knew that was a sign for another of Professor Agasa's 'punny' quiz time.

"When you ask some to lend you a match, what do you say to them in return?" Professor Agasa said with a huge grin.

Conan just started eating the snacks as he didn't care much to participate in the Professor's quiz time. Not to mention that he already knew the answer.

Haibara just sat down next to Conan and observed the kids as they thought about the question. Sighing in frustration, Genta turned to Conan and said while crossing his chubby arms, "hey, Conan, you always know the answer to these things what is it?" Ayumi and Mitsuhiko looked up distracted from their thought process.

"Wait Genta, we can solve this." Said Mitsuhiko as he tapped his chin thinking of the solution.

As Genta looked over at Conan's direction again, he shoved a mouthful of chips into his mouth to avoid saying anything.

"Cheap trick," Genta grumbled as Haibara smirked at the scene before her.

"But what would you say if someone gives you a match?" Ayumi said aloud with a frown as she thought about it.

After a while, she said, "I can't think of anything but thank you."

"You're nearly there, Yoshida-san," said Haibara giving her an encouraging smile. She silently rooted for Ayumi to solve the Professor's lame pun.

"Hey Professor, there's too much salt on these chips." Said Conan, putting emphasis on the word 'much'.

Professor Agasa just looked over and muttered, "blame the store or whatever factory that made them." Even though he picked one up to try it himself, and said that he didn't see anything wrong with it.

Ayumi was able to pick up on Conan's hint and eyes lighted with excitement, she exclaimed, "I've solved it!" Just as Mitsuhiko reached the conclusion but decided to remain quiet for Ayumi to say the answer.

"It's thank you very match! Isn't that right Professor Agasa?" Ayumi said excitedly as she turned to look up at the Professor with a huge beaming smile.

Professor Agasa nodded and said, "that is correct Ayumi-kun. When someone lends you a match, you say thank you very match [much]."

Conan just gave a comical deadpan laugh as he muttered so only he himself could hear, "that is so lame."

The others just harbored comical 'seriously' faces at the old uncle joke that the Professor had just said.

As the kids talked about themselves, with Professor Agasa joining in here and there, Conan sent Ran a quick text message of where he was so she wouldn't be about the house worrying about him, and maybe even quite possibly call the police if he didn't show up at home.

Haibara had excused herself just a couple of seconds ago saying she wasn't 'feeling well' and went to her lab. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko had offered to accompany and help her respectively, but she had refused. After all, she needed to get some work done and keep these curious kids away from all matters concerning the Black Organization as much as possible.

Genta had kindly offered her a watermelon before she left and she had again politely refused. Conan sat by watching her go and felt a little bad for pushing her to work on the antidote like that. _I feel like I'm being so selfish,_ he thought as she closed the door to her basement laboratory.

In her lab, Haibara sat down in front of her computer and pulled out a file she had kept all the data in from the bottom drawer in the desk. Setting the manilla file folder down in front of her, she opened it up to look through past data and records.

When she made the Apotoxin, a project that she had picked up and advanced from her parents, it was obviously made to kill for the Organization. She had know idea it could shrink and revert back until she tested it on a lab rat that one time.

Of course, she didn't tell anyone about the finding, but she also couldn't have let the rat live due to the dangers of what the Organization would find out, so she had to put down the rat and that decision saved both her and Conan as the Organization still doesn't know about the drug's shrinking effect. Even if she regretted and felt bad for the rat.

Taking her mind away from her memories, good and bad, turned her attention back to the folder laying before her. _Two days huh, that's the time limit,_ she thought mulling this over. She booted up her computer, and went through a replica drawing of the drug on there. Since it was made to kill off cells and activate an enzyme called telomerase, which limits and increases the number of times a cell can divide itself, then she just needed a formula to deactivate the telomerase as well as reproduce the needed cells. _Easier said than done,_ she sighed leaning in her chair and closed her eyes to think things through.

After several minutes had passed, Haibara opened her eyes and grabbed a spare bottle of Baijiu from the drawer in her desk and pour a small sample of it into a test tube. Setting that aside on a stand, she took a drop from the test tube putting it on a glass and putted it under a microscope. From what she had discovered from the wine the last time, she knew that it has a component that can reverse the Apotoxin's effect, which she had already extracted.

At first, she thought that it had to be taken with a cold as Conan has usually taken the antidote when he had one, but that wasn't the case as when he went to London, he didn't have a cold and the antidote worked just fine. _Something that has to do with the immune system when a person has a cold,_ Haibara realized as she turned away from the microscope.

The Apotoxin could be improved if she could replicate that along with the component from the baijiu. She smiled to herself and went back to her computer typing furiously as she changed some formulas here and there from the previous prototype antidote.

"Do you think that Ai-chan is okay, she been locked up in there for a while now." Ayumi said her eyes darkening with worry as they prepared to clean up the board games they were playing with. Conan kept winning and buying all the lands when given the chance; not to mention he kept adding houses and hotels to his properties making the rent higher each time someone lands there. In the end everyone was bankrupt except Conan who had heaps of money before him.

"I bet Conan cheated." Genta said grumpily as he crossed his arms, jealous that Conan was the richest and that because he was able to win three times in a row. The game finished fast as everyone besides Conan lost their money on a blink of an eye.

Mitsuhiko too, looked at Conan suspiciously and said, "you didn't cheat did you Conan-kun?" He couldn't believe that he lost like that and Conan won the whole time, to him of wasn't logically possible. Conan just rolled his as at the two, as Ayumi said, "aww come on guys, Conan-kun is just good at this game, aren't you, Conan-kun?"

Conan smiled a little deviously, only the professor notice this, as he nodded. Turning to Genta and Mitsuhiko, he said, "idiots, how can I possibly cheat in this game?" He gave them both a look that stated 'you can't find any evidence against me at all'.

Mitsuhiko and Genta just muttered something about a lying cheater as they turned to the Professor asking him what other games there is to play. Genta looked slightly back at Conan, and whispered "one that can't be cheated in."

"I heard that." Conan said from his place near the couch, as he smiled a small amused smile, which hardly showed.

Professor Agasa just laughed nervously, as he turned his attention to the variety of games strewn about. Eyes scanning the area, he picked up a deck of cards, "why don't we play a card game?" He asked turning back to the kids plus Conan.

"I abstain," Conan muttered, he had had enough of cards since yesterday night. Also, he didn't like that fact that he nearly had his foot slice by a card due to one idiotic thief in white. And no, he wasn't going to forgive the thief just yet for that. Perhaps tomorrow if he is in a better mood.

Everyone else just shrugged as they played a game of mafia. Which they specifically chose to draw Conan's attention to the game as they had hoped that he would be interested and take part in the detective role.

Back in the lab, Haibara continued to search through the many different folders she has. _There has to be something here, even if I know what to do, I don't how to carry it out._ She sighed as she buried her face into her arms down on the desk.

Deciding to take a break and going back to figuring out the antidote later, she stood up and left the basement laboratory.

As she entered the living room, she found Conan on the couch looking at his phone while the kids and the professor were playing a game of mafia.

Going over to sit down on the couch next to Conan, she asked, "which game are they on?"

Conan looked up momentarily to respond "fourth," as he went back to his phone screen a second after that. Haibara just nodded intending to joined in the next game.

Everyone was so focused on the game that they didn't notice Haibara entering the room.

"Why didn't you join, they have a detective role in this game." She said to Conan, and he just shrugged.

"Not sure, maybe I just don't want to deal with cards right now." He said again looking up from his phone for just a brief moment then looked back down again.

Haibara didn't say anything for a while as she watched the others play, then quietly she announced that she'll get dinner ready as it was starting to get late and Conan just nodded although he wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings.

In the kitchen, Haibara took the ingredients out of the cupboards and fridge respectively and set them on the counter. After that she set out to make the rice. Taking a stool, as her height now is too short to reach the rice cooker, her only down side of shrinking, besides that she didn't mind, she liked her new life and it feels as if she was gets to have a do over, and more than that she has someone she considers as family, the professor, and friends. Smiling a bit to herself although it lasted only a second, she stepped onto the stool and pour some water into the rice pot reaching just until her distal interphalangeal -the joint nearest to the fingertip-, she swirled her hand around the rice pot several time and poured out the now murky water, and she repeated this process until the water was clear. After that, she put the rice pot into the rice cooker and set about making the other meals as she waited for the rice to cook.

She had decided that this month she was putting the Professor on a diet again as she found out that he had been sneaking snacks late at night. To punish him, she decided every meal was going to be healthy, so with this in mind, she began to make a soba noodle salad.

She started making the sauce after she had put the noodles in a pot of boiling water to cook it, and Conan came wandering in, most likely in search for something to munch on.

"Hey Haibara, you have a phone charger I can borrow?" He asked, "the Professor said so." He said and nodded in the direction of where the others were still playing games when she quirked an eyebrow at him.

"I'm busy making dinner," Haibara said an uninterested expression on her face. Conan just frowned a bit, and muttered "but my phone died." He went to sit at the kitchen table again that day, waiting to see if Haibara would be so kind as to lend him the charger. He was in the middle of texting Ran as his former self.

"Don't you have two phones?" Haibara asked after awhile. Conan nodded although she couldn't see that as she was turned the other way, and chopping up herbs.

"Except I was texting Ran as Shinichi, I can't just text her with Conan's phone out of nowhere." He sighed, honestly if he does end up talking to her as Shinichi again as his phone is now dead, he would be able to hear the end of it. She would just go on and on about how he just suddenly stopped texting her like that.

Haibara thought for a moment, knowing Ran, she would totally not let him hear the end of it and that thought amused her. She toyed with the idea of letting Conan suffer for just a bit, as she went to strain the soba noodles and putting the whole thing together to make her soba noodle salad. _Should I not? For fun?_ She thought.

As she set the soba noodle salad aside to work on the next dish, she finally said, "upstairs, next to my desk. If you touch anything else though, I will kill you."

"Yeah, thanks!" Conan said and zipped out of the kitchen and came back downstairs within a minutes time.

 _That was fast,_ Haibara thought as she cracked some eggs into a bowl to make niratama donburi.

Around some 15-20 minutes later, she finished making dinner and went to set the table. The three kids still hyper unaware of other going ons in the house except for their game, that is, until Genta smelt food.

Making a mad dash for the kitchen, abandoning the game entirely he went straight for the dinner table.

"Ah! Genta-kun, where are you going?" Ayumi asked surprised at his sudden movement. And Mitsuhiko shook his head, Genta could really be a slave for food.

Conan again, looked up momentarily and went back to his phone, Ran had asked him if was ever coming back as she had something import to tell him and he had been trying for the past hour and a half to get her to tell him over text, but she wouldn't no matter how much he had pried into it. Sighing, he really wanted to know, as he was a naturally curious person.

At the dining table, Haibara swat Genta's hand away as he made a grab for the food. Giving him a hard stare she said in a warning tone, "not yet." Then she turned around to go back to the kitchen to get everything else and set it on the table.

"Don't touch anything until everyone is at the table," she warned Genta again as she went to go call everyone to dinner.

She had succeeded in getting the Professor and the kids to go eat, but Conan was still glued to his phone. Seeing as he wasn't going to walk away from it anytime soon, she went over to make an attempt to grab it from him, but he dodge last minute and gave her a 'don't touch' look. Sighing, she put her hands on her hips and said, "what are you doing anyways? You've been on that for nearly two hours now."

Conan seemed reluctant to respond and dodging the question he said "let's go eat."

Walking into the kitchen, the two sat down joining the others. Slightly annoyed, although she didn't show it, because Conan had been so secretive, not that she wasn't, but he seemed troubled and she was just trying to help even if her methods weren't very welcoming.

"Can we eat now?" Genta complained, getting anxious at seeing food placed before him but he wasn't allowed to eat it yet. Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Professor Agasa just smiled at that. Genta looked at Haibara to get the okay to dig and when she nodded, they all quickly said "itadakimasu", and Genta practically inhaled his plate.

"Conan-kun, are you staying over today?" Professor Agasa asked, as he usually takes care of Conan slightly more than the others due to years of knowing him when he was Shinichi and because he had babysitted him often when his parents went on trips when he was a child. To Conan, Shinichi, Professor Agasa was a reliable friend, a consultant, and a grandfatherly figure to him.

Still, Conan shook his head no, "Ran...Ran-neechan won't let me," he said with a childish pout, "she'll get worried if I don't go home after this." He said again in an innocent child like manner as he couldn't really refer to Ran as Ran with the other kids still around. He did say that with the tone of a kid who really wanted something but couldn't, so it wasn't all that suspicious when he changed tones.

Professor Agasa just nodded and turning to Haibara, he asked, "Ai-kun, where is the meat in this?"

She gave the Professor her 'you're on a diet look,' just as Genta chimed in, "true, there's only green leaves things and noodles, and the other dish is just more green leaves things, eggs, and rice."

"Oh, stop complaining Genta, you did finished everything on your plate already." Mitsuhiko said. He nodded and turned to Haibara, he asked, "can have seconds?" When she nodded, he let out a whoop and pile his plate high with more food. Haibara had remembered to triple the recipe due to the fact that Genta was here.

At some point during dinner time, the conversation had been steered towards an oncoming holiday at the end of the month. Since they were in the midst and fall, in two days it would be one of the detective boys favorite holidays, the Professor decided to have them all meet up at his house so that they could go trick-or-treating together.

"Ah, perhaps we should invite Ran-kun and Sonoko-kun to go along too." He said turning to Conan with a smile.

He just nodded as he finished his dinner, thanked them for the meal and excused himself. Going back to the living room he picked up his charging phone again.

 _Come on Ran, what is it that you want to tell me so badly but won't?_ He couldn't think of anything that he didn't already know of. It couldn't be a confession could it, even if it was he deduced that a while ago and because she outright told him when he first became Conan.

So what was so important that had to be said in person? He's been living under the same roof as her and he didn't even know.

She did say it in matter where it doesn't sound like he should be worrying about it, or that's what Ran seems to be intending it be like. It was moments like these when he really wished that he could be Shinichi no matter how brief the moment may be.

Seeing as he was getting nowhere in the conversation as she still refused to tell him over text, he decided that maybe he could find out by being Conan, so he texted her, _-I'm sorry Ran, but I need to get back to the case now, I'm being called away. I'll talk to you again soon when I get the chance all right?-_ Conan sighed, he shut off the phone and put it down letting it finish charging.

He didn't bother to look at the reply, _-You'd better, you detective geek.-_

* * *

 **AN:** Okay, so chapter 5, honestly the main parts of this chapter was supposed to be the conversation with Conan and Professor Agasa about Vermouth and Haibara going through her notes on the APTX antidote. Everything else were add ons lol. (*^▽^*) And I would like to thank google because I got the food ideas and match joke off there heh, also this [insert cookie emoji here] is for anyone who knew it was Kaito in the beginning. Sorry to disappoint this chapter round, but I am going to upload chapter 6, which I decided would be a halloween themed chapter because Halloween is coming up. Who's excited? I'm waiting to see what each character will dress up as because even I don't know myself yet hehe (*´꒳`*)

Um, also I know that the game mafia is usually played with 7 or more players, but I was short on characters and I'm actually thinking of having the characters play the game again but next time with more characters obviously [and as I'm writing this it's raining outside and this dog keeps growling for no apparent reason…] and yeah I played this game before and we added in some other players (besides innocents/townsfolk and mafias, there was also a detective, doctor, lawyer, magician and what not and I thought that it corresponded to some characters in this. And look at me just ramble on like that, so sorry. I do this a lot and again sorry, I'll work on not taking too much. (*´∇｀*)


	8. Chapter 6

**_Warning:_** this chapter makes no sense as I didn't proofread and had to rush it.

* * *

She looked up as her adopted brother entered the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table, yawning widely as he waited for her to serve breakfast.

Her father had left early that morning as he was called off on another case. Since school was about to start, she quickly set the dishes of tamagoyaki and rice on the table. When looked over at Conan who was still nodding off to dream about to face plant into his bowl of rice, so she got up and went over to shake him awake.

"Conan-kun, don't sleep in your food silly." She said with an affectionate and amused smile. Sometimes, Conan could be one of the cutest kids she's ever known.

Conan, who had come home late last night and wasn't able to get any sleep, he was mulling through the Black Organization case in his mind, just mumbled something incoherent and blinked, trying to register his surroundings.

As his sight started to focus, he realized he nearly fell asleep at the breakfast table and smiled up sheepishly at Ran who looked quite amused at the sleepy Conan.

"Awake now?" She asked still with an affectionate smile plastered on her face. Conan nodded and she went back to her seat to continue her breakfast.

As they ate, Ran checked the kitchen clock and muttered about hurrying before they are late. Agreeing, Conan too zipped through his breakfast and Ran quickly piled the dishes into the sink, intending to work on them when she got home, went out the door and down the set of stairs into the sidewalk of front of the Mouri Detective Agency.

As they walked to school, Conan asked Ran, "ne Ran-neechan?" He tugged at her sleeves to get her attention. Looking down at him, she hummed a response.

"What is it Conan-kun," she asked. _He's not feeling sick right now is he?_ She thought worriedly.

"Professor Agasa asked if you and Sonoko-neechan wanted to go trick-or-treating with was on Halloween." He said with excited childish cheer and throwing his hands up for emphasis.

"It's going to be so much fun! We get to go and get candy from everyone!" Conan said with well acted out excitement once more and he smiled up brightly at Ran awaiting her response.

It's not like he didn't like Halloween, he's always been more of the logical person so the holiday wasn't a favorite for him, but he didn't mind taking part of going house to house to get candy. He'll never really admit it, as he's always been taken for a mature and serious person, but the child in him really likes trick-or-treating. That also meant playing a small prank on the Professor as he had does every year on Halloween and of course April fools day, but that day hasn't arrived yet.

Ran mulled over the thought for a moment, and finally said "Let me ask Sonoko if she wants to join us, but I'd be glad to come." She smiled happily down at Conan who returned her smile.

When they were kids, he had always opted to stay home and read after he'd had enough of going door to door for candy. Ran had always chose to accompany him, so she didn't really go trick or treating as much as she'd like.

Now, however, he decided that maybe he should indulge her as he had learned to appreciate the value of his friends more.

As Conan joined his friends at the end of the street two blocks away from home, Ran greeted the ever enthusiastic kids and a quiet and mature Haibara.

"Ran-oneesan! Are you coming with us to go trick-or-treating?" Ayumi asked bouncing in place due to her excitement of having more people hopefully join them.

Mitsuhiko chimed in, "yes, Ran-san, are you going to join us as well?" Genta followed with a loud "yeah, are you?"

Conan just smiled fondly at Ran as she knelt down to eye level with the kids and answered, "of course I am. I wouldn't miss it for the world." She gave them a sweet smile, and bid them farewell as she headed to her school and told Conan to take care and not get into trouble, which made the others snicker at him.

Sticking out his tongue at them and wave 'bye' to Ran, he went on ahead before them.

"Very mature if you." Haibara muttered inaudibly as she followed close behind.

Once they had reached Teitan Elementary School, Conan and Haibara went in the classroom before them, as they kids were still busy talking amongst them of the upcoming holiday.

In the classroom, Kobayashi Sensei stood before the student with a huge smile on her face. Haibara and Conan exchange quick 'oh no' looks as their teacher can be quite the enthusiastic person.

Up front of the class, Kobayashi Sensei said brightly as the last of the students entered and the bell rang for school to start.

"Alright now that everyone is all here let's get started by first talking about Halloween. Who's excited to go trick-or-treating tomorrow night?" She said this with as much enthusiasm as when the detective stumble upon a case.

The whole class minus Conan and Haibara cheered loudly.

 _The teachers never did this when I was a kid,_ Conan thought with a microscopic nostalgic smile. _They only said 'Happy Halloween' then went back to teaching._

Haibara too, was deep in thought. She remember that back at the school that she went to in America, they had never cared for the holidays there and only ever focused on the studies. _We never did this when I was a kid, but I guess it'll be fun._ She then proceeded to give a little smile along with the rest of the class minus Conan still whose mind seemed to have drifted off elsewhere.

However, on contrary when the class was distracted and busy discussing their plans for tomorrow night, Conan had received a text message.

When he was about to respond to the text message, Kobayashi Sensei asked, "Edogawa-kun, do you have anything planned tomorrow night?"

Startled, as he wasn't paying attention, he looked up momentarily and and nodded.

"I'm going to go trick-or-treating with my friends, Ran-neechan, and the Professor." He said in all childishness all the while thinking to himself, _yeah but there's something else I'd rather be doing instead._

Haibara who had notice Conan receiving the message, leaned over discretely and asked, "what was that about? It's not your girlfriend again is it?"

Conan frowned at Haibara and said, "no, and how many times do I have to tell you that Ran isn't my girlfriend."

She just smirked in return as teasing Conan was to her, an enjoyable hobby.

At Teitan High School, Ran and Sonoko sat in their math class with Ran diligently taking notes while Sonoko sat bored out of her mind. _Why is math even invented, it's so boring and it kills my brain._ She thought as she surveyed the class with nothing better to do.

As her mind began to drift off, she thought about Halloween since it was a day where she could dress up and look super fashionable cute, as she would say.

Then out of nowhere, she remembered last year's Halloween when she had when with Detective Mouri to a party on a ship as Ran was too afraid of ghosts to go.

There she had seen Shinichi's parents, and that cute dark skinned detective from Osaka. _Wait, why was he disguised as Shinichi-kun anyways._ She thought and then looked over to her best friend.

She felt sort of guilty as she never told Ran much about the party as she thought that Ran wouldn't take the fact that Shinichi could have been there instead of coming home. _But then a case did happen there,_ She thought with a comical deadpan look.

She also didn't say much details on that ship party as she had assumed that Ran's father had told her about it.

Sonoko, deep in thought, only came out of her reverie when the teacher gave her announcement to the class.

Turning around, the teacher said, "class, since this is my last year here, as you all know I am moving away and won't be teaching here any longer, then I'd think it would be nice if we have a party and a costume contest. The winner of the contest gets a MoolaShine gift card."

Nakamichi whooped his approval of the prize as he asked, "hey sensei, how much will we be getting?"

The teacher thought for a moment and said, "I haven't decided, but I might make it $5 for third place, $10 for second place, and $15 for first place."

At hearing that, the whole class peeked up and the majority of them talked amongst themselves hoping that get the first place prize.

"Is there a requirement?" Sonoko asked, " "like scary, cute, cool, you like categories or is it just the best costume?"

"I think that there shouldn't be a limit to the costume, so yes it's for the top three most hard worked on costume." Said the teacher.

"Wait, what? We have to make a costume?" Nakamichi and Sonoko asked simultaneously, "we can't just go out and by one?"

The teacher thought for a moment and said, "the most creative costumes then."

Then looking at Nakamichi and Sonoko in turn, said "better?" And the two along with the rest of the class agreed.

 _I hope there aren't any scary ones,_ Ran thought nervously to herself and Sonoko too hope there weren't any super scary ones for Ran's sake even of she herself prefers to have a good scare.

"That's settled then," said the teacher with a bright smile, "I'll see you all here in costume tomorrow. Now, about the party, who has any suggestions."

"Food! Lots and lots of food!" Nakamichi and Aizawa Eisuke shouted out together. Half of the class agreed and the other half just rolled their eyes at the two soccer players usual antics.

They were both popular soccer friends of Shinichi, even after he had quit playing soccer when he had learned the acquired skills to knock down criminals with a powerful well trained kick. Even though Shinichi had quit playing soccer, he was still a fanatic for it and gets really hyped up when the World Cup comes around, even to the point of throwing a tantrum when the team he is rooting for loses.

As the class continued their debate on the costume contest and party, at Teitan Elementary School, Conan was just hoping to get a break from the now rampaging hyperactive unruly class lead by one mega enthusiastic Kobayashi Sensei.

 _Sensei, aren't you really getting into this a little too much?_ Conan thought with a deadpan expression as he watched their teacher babble on excitedly with the kids about what they should do for their party tomorrow. Then suddenly, and Conan could literally see the light bulb icon blink above Kobayashi Sensei's head, she exclaimed, "let's make the decorations right now, that way tomorrow we can just focus on the party? What do you say?" Her eyes lit up with the excitement of a child and the whole class cheered, again minus the participation of Conan and Haibara who looked a little wary of said oncoming party as the kids can be quite out of hand and that mean the detective boys, who always seemed to have way too much energy making Conan feel much older than his 17 year old self at times.

"Maybe we can make banners so we can hang it up against the walls?" Higashio Maria suggested in a shy and quiet voice.

Ayumi turned in her seat next to her and said with a huge beaming smile, "that's a great idea Maria! We can also make a big banner and place in the center of the room. Right Kobayashi Sensei?" She turned to look at Kobayashi Sensei for approval to which she responded with a bright happy smile, "of course that's a really good idea the both of you! How about I put you two in charge of making the banner for the party." She said and the two smiled back brightly both saying "yes!" at the same time.

Turning around in her seat, Ayumi said, "Ai-chan, you'll help is too won't you?"

Haibara looked hesitant for a while but after Conan nudged her to agree, she nodded with a small genuine smile.

"Sure, I'd like to," she said in her quiet and mature tone.

"Hey, Conan-kun, why don't you help us with decorations?" Mitsuhiko said as he and Genta walked over to Conan's desk while Haibara had moved up front to help Ayumi and Maria with the banner.

 _Eh, I'm not so good with art, only blueprints and architecture, or some reason I never knew why._ Conan thought to himself before he nodded, very, very hesitatingly. He wasn't sure what to do and Mitsuhiko and Genta could be really commanding at times. He signed as he 'listened' to Mitsuhiko talk about what they should make, while really, his mind drifted back to the text message he has yet to read. _Man, does that guy have class today or not, whatever is it it's probably just the typical._ He thought as he leaned against his palm and stared distantly out the window deep in thought.

Once again, Conan was lost to the world and was only brought back by Genta shaking him violently to get his attention.

"Hey, Conan, pay attention will you." Genta said crossing his arms in annoyance. Conan just blinked as he looked up as Genta was standing.

"Yes, Conan-kun, do pay more attention, we asked you if you can draw haunted houses." Mitsuhiko added crossing his arms too and looked at Conan with a disapproving frown as Conan didn't seem to be taking their task seriously.

"Ehheh, sorry guys, I was tired, didn't get much sleep last night." He gave them a 'sheepish' smiled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"My mom said that getting enough sleep is good for your health." Genta chimed in afterwards and Mitsuhiko nodded saying, "yes, sleep is an important factor to your growth and keeps your mind functioning."

Conan just nodded although he was listening to a word they said, and muttered, "houses, yeah I think I can draw houses." He had a distant look again, but the other two actual kids didn't take notice of it.

"That's good," Genta said, then added, "and make it scary really scary."

"Yeah, we want it to be the scariest decoration here in the classroom." Mitsuhiko said nodding vigorously as he did so.

Conan quirked up an eyebrow as he mumbled, "was there a contest that I'm missing here?"

"No, but one must always strive for the best." Mitsuhiko said in an all knowing time of voice.

Conan just gave a comical deadpan expression as he thought, _in what way is this striving to be the best, this is you guys wanting something to boast to others about again, although I'm the one drawing it._ He let out a sigh as he took some paper off of the desk that Mitsuhiko was sitting at an began his drawing.

 _Scary huh, I guess I can do that._ Conan thought as he tapped the pencil against his chin to think of how to carry out his architectural haunted house design.

Moments later, he handed the paper to Mitsuhiko and Genta, giving them a 'well, what do you think' look.

Taking the paper, from Conan, Mitsuhiko and Genta stared for a moment making Conan wonder, _is my drawing that bad, I thought I that I did pretty good._

Just then, Mitsuhiko broke Conan out of his internal monologue by saying, "Conan-kun, you know, I realized this before too but are you an adult? I mean, kids don't really draw like this." He flipped the paper over so Conan could look at his drawing too. The house was detailed and looked professional.

"What?" He said quickly, "are you crazy; do I look like an adult?" He quickly thought up of another lame excuse as he said pointing to the picture, "that, that was because before I moved to Japan to stay with Agasa Hakase I didn't have anyone my age to play with or talk to, so I just read books and and drew pictures all day long." Mitsuhiko looked sorry for Conan at that and felt a little guilty for saying something that he believed has made Conan feel bad about.

"Wait, so what did you do for fun?" Genta asked oblivious to what Conan had just said. He received two deadpan 'really?" looks just then.

"I read, drew and solved puzzles." Conan grumble, and that was true, during his childhood [his real one] he as Shinichi, did only those things with the occasion of his father sometimes taking him to cases with him. Other than that, he sometimes hung out with Ran and Sonoko, but he was mostly alone.

Now, however, as Conan, it was different. Being strung along to places, reading manga instead of books, playing video games and watching other TV shows that wasn't detective based, it was all knew to him and he wasn't quite sure how he actually like this second childhood of his. He was supposed to be 17, not 7 again. He was supposed to have a life of a high schooler and could have asked Ran out too, but now? What does he have left now, Ran was still worried about him yes, but both he and her, do they still care for each other like that? He had realized not long ago that he'd much rather have her as a foster/adoptive sister than as a girlfriend/potential future wife.

For him, Shinichi, it just didn't feel right to make her wait for nothing. He doesn't even know when he'll actually return to be his true self and yet he had told her to wait and wait and wait. It just didn't seem fair to either of them, so should he just let her go? _Maybe that's what I'll tell her the next time we meet and I am Shinichi, me again. I'll tell her that she should stop waiting for me because I don't know when or if I'm ever coming back, ever again…_ Conan thought with the utmost of uncertainty, as he was trying to figure out his true feelings.

Up front, Haibara and other two actual kids were painting a banner that said 'Happy Halloween' and they had bedazzled the banner with skulls (Haibara's idea) and glitter (the two kids).

Ayumi looked at their finished project proudly as she said, "you think we can hang it up right in the middle of the class?"

Maria nodded her head enthusiastically as

Haibara remained quiet for a short while as she thought.

"No, I think we should put it up front, that way it's on display for everyone to she the great art you two have done." She said looking a little thoughtful.

"Aww, Haibara-san, you worked on it too, so you should include yourself." Said Maria with a small shy smile. She had never actually talked to Haibara much as she seemed a little unapproachable, but Ayumi and Haibara seem to be close friends so she decided that it shouldn't be to hard to be able to talk to Haibara.

When Haibara just nodded and didn't say anything after that as she had notice Cona spacing out again, Maria's face fell a little and Ayumi went to put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a bright encourage smile, to which Maria returned.

 _That's right, I'm new here, but maybe if I try I can make some friends. I think I can consider Ayumi-san a friend._ Maria thought with new determination.

However, in the meantime, Haibara thought as she looked over in Conan's direction; _Kudou-kun has been spacing more recently, should I consider that as an effect of the drug? As far I as know, it's not supposed to tamper with the brain. Perhaps he is just a mindless drone._

Later, as the kids had finally decorated mtheir class, they stood back to admire their handy work.

"Wow, it looks really good!" Ayumi exclaimed excitedly. And she received a chorus of nods and agreement.

After Kobayashi Sensei had dismissed them as class was over, three kids excitedly dragged Conan and Haibara to Professor Agasa's house.

When they had arrived at the Professor's house, the kids ran in immediately to find Professor Agasa so that they could start their plan for Halloween night.

 _They're way too excited,_ Conan thought with a slight yawn as he made his way to the living room. Haibara had went up stairs to put away her school bag.

"Ah, good to see you kids again." He said as he entered the room dragged along by the three real kids.

"Professor Agasa, we need to have a proper appointed schedule to follow," said Mitsuhiko putting an index finger up and an orderly manner.

"Yeah, and food. We need a lot of food." Genta added as he flopped onto the couch. Conan just rolled his eyes at them.

The Professor smiled as he saw that, remembering when Shinichi had been a kid himself and had came over with Ran and Sonoko while they were trick-or-treating. Conan noticed the nostalgic look in the Professor's face and he gave a hint of a small smile. _Yeah, me too Hakase. I remember those days too._ And he could keep the nostalgia from creeping in as he thought that.

Back in his days kids just wanted candy, they didn't really care for plans or parties, everyone in class just wanted to compete to see who had the most by the end of the night. No doubt these kids won't do that too, Conan considered, but he'd much rather go trick or treating with Ran and Sonoko as himself since he hadn't done that in what was it seven years now.

He shook his head slightly to rid himself of these thoughts, as the other talked about their costumes.

"Ayumi is going to be a fairy!" She exclaimed happily. Her parents had gotten her a sparkly pink fairy outfit with a matching jeweled tiara just some nights ago. Mitsuhiko and Genta looked smittened as they heard that, both with identical pink blushes on their cheeks.

"Ah, Haibara-san, what about you. What are you going to be?" Mitsuhiko asked with a slightly anticipating look. _Please say princess so I can be your hero._ He thought with a small bit of hope.

 _This woman should be a witch._ Conan thought with a blank expression. Haibara gave an evil smirk, probably reading Conan's mind, as she said, "a witch."

 _Oh, shit. I was right._ Conan thought and looked a little weary as he had a feeling that Haibara could just pry through people's minds at will, which to him was a little bit creepy.

"Cool! I'm going to be Frankenstein." Genta announced loudly and he puffed up his chest and tapped it with his fist.

"And I a superhero." Mitsuhiko said going into one of those cliche hero pose.

Haibara smiled and nodded at the kids and turned to Conan saying, "and you Edogawa-kun? What will our resident detective be?"

This time it was Conan's turned to smirk evilly as he said while holding his school book in front of his face to shadow it, "the grim reaper, death himself." He said in a haunting tone.

"You mean because you yourself are like a shinigami?" Haibara muttered so only Conan could hear and he gave her a withering look.

"I'm not a god of death," he grumbled and to himself he silently added, "I just have bad luck as people tend to just drop and decide to stop breathing when I'm there."

"Ahh, Conan's costume is the easiest," Genta said and Conan gave him a 'no shit' look mumbling "that's why I chose it."

"What about you Agasa Hakase?" Ayumi asked as she looked up at him from where she was sitting.

"Me?" Professor Agasa asked. He hadn't really thought about as he hasn't been trick-or-treating since he himself was a kid. Sure Shinichi, Ran, and Sonoko had asked to come with them once or twice when he was a kid, but he had never really dressed up. He just went with them to supervise when Shinichi's parents went about to prank the neighbors and other people nearby.

"Just wear your lab coat and be a professor." Conan said shrugging although his eyes added 'like how you used to take us trick-or-treating, those old times'.

The Professor had to smile at that, as he said "yes, I can just be a professor for Halloween, can't I." He gave the kids a warm smile and went to get some snacks as Genta has complained about being hungry again.

Ran and Sonoko had walked back to the Mouri Detective Agency along with Masumi Sera, a fellow friend and classmate, when Ran received a text from Conan telling her that he was at the Professor's again.

She sent a text back telling him to be home after dinner and went back to her conversation with Sonoko who was banking on about what she should be for the costume contest and for Halloween.

"What are you going to do Ran?" She asked and the three girls had entered into the agency's living space up the stairs.

"I'm not sure yet, but I was thinking of something pure and elegant, like an angel." She said with a thoughtful look, "I haven't decided yet."

"Sera-san, what about you?" Ran said turning to Sera. She thought about it for a while, and finally responded with "perhaps a corpse, like a zombie."

At hearing this Ran gave the expression of a pair of comical dot eyes as she said, "as long as it's not too scary then it's okay."

"Ehh, Ran-kun, don't tell me you're afraid of monsters?" Sera asked a little incredulous. Ran always seemed like a tough and strong person to her.

Sonoko just giggled at her friend's expense as Ran frowned at her.

"Um...well...that is…" Ran stammered, as this wasn't something she'd so readily admit. Seeing as the situation has gotten quite awkward for Ran, Sonoko decided to some to the rescue saying "we should have a sleepover party!"

"Ooh that sounds like fun!" Sera said forgetting about Ran's fears for the time being.

"But where? We can't have it here, you know how my dad is like. He'll just complain the whole time." Ran said and the others agreed.

"Well, a party at least then." Sonoko said adamant on having at least one party on Halloween night.

"We can always join Professor Agasa and the kids." Ran suggested with a smile and then excused herself to get some juice for them, but not before hearing Sonoko complain, "but we're already going trick or treating with those brats."

At Professor Agasa's, through the adamant persuasion of the three kids, had went out to by some last minute pumpkins, and they were now carving them. Conan and Haibara worked on one as the other three worked on another.

At some point, Genta and Mitsuhiko had made it into a pumpkin carving competition and Conan's pride wouldn't allow him to lose.

Urging Haibara to participate in their little pumpkin carving too, the two not kids, decided to carved a picture instead of a scary face like the three real kids.

In end, Conan's team won for their intricate details of the haunted house they carved out on the pumpkin and Mitsuhiko's team lost by the standard scary face on Halloween pumpkins that people often do.

 _Who knew Haibara was good at carving,_ Conan thought with mild amazement. By the time they had finished carving the pumpkins, it was already dinner time, so Haibara and Ayumi, an excited willing helper, went to go make dinner.

Ran, Sonoko, and Masumi had left to find things for their costume. Sonoko had decided to be Ran's opposite and chose her costume as a devil. Masumi had decided to stick to her idea of be a zombie and Sonoko had willingly lend a hand at helping her with the make up for it.

Going to different shops, the girls bought wings, white and black for Ran and Sonoko's costume and a white baggy tshirt and and khaki sweatpants to make Masumi's costume.

Then when the sky darkened, indicating that it was nearing night time, Masumi and Sonoko left nodding their farewells to Ran and Mouri Kogoro who had returned home late that evening.

At Professor Agasa's, after Conan had once again ate dinner there went home to see Ran working hard on her costume and bedazzling it here and there to make it look majestic.

"Ran-neechan, I'm home." Conan called as he entered.

Looking up momentarily from her project, she smiled as she said, "welcome home Conan-kun. Have you eaten?" He nodded.

Ran nodded with satisfaction and said, "do you want to help me with this costume?"

"Is that what you're wearing tomorrow to go trick-or-treating?" He asked as he examined it. "It's really pretty." He mumbled. And went to take a seat right next to Ran.

"Yes, this is also for the costume contest being held at school the winner gets a MoolaShine gift card." Ran said as she added more glitter and sparkly designs at the bottom of the white dress.

"Wow really, if you win will you share?" Asked Conan with wide eyes, MoolaShine was his favorite place to get coffee.

Ran just laughed as she nodded and asked him to help her with the halo as she didn't have enough hands to work it out correctly. The two worked late into the night laughing and talking and once got yelled at by Kogoro who had opted to go to bed earlier than usual that night. He complained about following some useless guy all day as it turned out that wasn't the person his client was looking for.

The next morning when Conan awoke, he smelt delicious pancakes coming from the kitchen and quickly, rushed in.

After they had all finished their breakfast, Ran and Conan left for school and Kogoro stayed at home to watch a show that Okino Yoko was appearing on.

When Conan arrived at school, the kids and Haibara were already there and some of the classmates had brought in food for their party. As he entered the class, he let out a big yawn and went to sit at his desk. He had stayed up late helping Ran with her costume, and he had to admit: it was worth it. Ran did indeed look like an angel in that costume and he hopes she wins. He definitely wasn't rooting for her mainly because he wanted her to win the $15 MoolaShine gift, nope that wasn't it at all.

"Alright class," Kobayashi Sensei said as the whole class had assembled. "Since today is Halloween, we'll all just enjoyed the party today as you have all worked so hard yesterday to decorate the class."

 _Please win that gift card Ran._ Conan thought as he and everyone else in the class went to go get food from up in front of the classroom.

At Teitan High however, Ran stood among the top ten finalists in the costume contest. Masumi hadn't made it past round two, but Sonoko was slightly annoyed that she had been kicked out of the competition just before the finalist round.

Nakamichi and Aizawa had also been kicked during the second round and making it through the first for their hilarious display of tin can twins.

"Alright, as you all know, there can only be three people who will get the prize but remember that you are all winners and I am glad to see that so many had participated in this." Said their math teacher excitedly.

"We are going to have two more finalist rounds, the last one will result in the top three and thus will be out three finalists." She said and then continued to to explain the rules for the last two rounds.

"This round we'll only have the top five remaining, so get ready to vote." She exclaimed and the ending results with Ran moving up to the top five.

"Yeah, you go Ran! That's my best friend!" Sonoko shouted from her seat as she watched the ongoing competition.

Masumi joined in cheering for Ran as did Aizawa and Nakamichi.

"The last round starts now!" Their teacher exclaimed as she rallied in the points once again and counted up the results.

Everyone waited with anticipation as she finished counting and looked up ready to announce the winners of their costume contest. Sonoko crossed her fingers slightly hoping Ran would place first.

"The first place winner is…" the teacher said after a few moments of silence, and the students all leaned forward intent on hearing who won first place.

"Mouri Ra…." the teacher dragged out the name of the person as she announced it.

 _Is it Ran or Raito-kun?_ Sonoko thought with anticipation. They had two Mouris in their class, one was Ran the other, a boy by the name of Mouri Raito.

Everyone leaned a tad bit closer to hear the the winner.

"Ran, Mouri Ran." The teacher said at last and applauded to which the whole class joined in.

"Yeah! Ran! You go girl!" Sonoko yelled at the top of her lungs and Masumi, Nakamichi and Aizawa joined in with their congratulations.

Ran just smiled meekly as she went up to accept the first place prize. _Conan-kun would be happy_ she thought, _he really likes that place._

From then, the class went on with the party and ate and talked with their friends. The contest winners receiving compliments and congratulations here and there.

At Ekoda High School, Kaito sat at his desk munching on some cookies, as he stared out the window.

Their teacher was as much of a costume enthusiast as ever as she was talking to some students about their costumes and her own, a fairy ballerina.

"Konno-sensei is really into this whole dress up thing isn't she." Momoi Keiko leaned over in her seat to whisper to Aoko, one of her best friends, who giggled and nodded.

"True, but it is kind of fun, it like you're always keeping your inner child with you, and what's more fun than dressing as a princess and making everyone be your loyal subject for awhile." She whispered back.

"That first part was a bit deep," Keiko muttered inaudibly.

Kaito, who had very sharp hearing, overheard parts of their conversations. _What's with girls and their love for dress up?_ He thought with a sigh, he's just in it for the candy.

"Yeah, a princess, or in your case, Kaitou Kid's bride." Keiko said now with a devious smirk this time not even trying to whisper.

"Keiko!" Aoko hissed, "that wasn't it, that was Kaito dressed as Kid for the skiing competition!"

"Ah, so you're Kaito's bride, I see then." She still smirked deviously at her friend. The class heard the now loud conversation and burst out in laughter as Aoko's face turned bright red. _Is she angry or embarrassed?_ Keiko, Akako, Kaito, and Hakuba thought at the same time.

"Ah sorry Aoko, maybe I went too far." She said as she gave her friend a sheepish smile.

"Hey, Kuroba-kun, you're not going to masquerade as Kid in front of everyone again are you? My sources tell me that it wouldn't be a good idea." Akako leaned over so only Kaito could hear.

He rolled his eyes and with a frown said, "Akako, don't be so delusional, I'm not who you think I am." _And I'm not dumb enough to be Kaitou Kid for Halloween when that bastard Hakuba is around._ Kaito thought with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Kuroba-kun." This time it was Hakuba who whispered to Kaito, saying, "Kid isn't going to make an appearance tonight is he now, because I can have the police there in a split second you know."

Kaito gave Hakuba a death glare, "how the hell would I know, idiot." He grounded out the words and looked about ready to pull on his hair or slam a desk over Hakuba's head. The second option would do nicely. Honestly he had to find a way to prove his innocence or else Hakuba will always try to finds ways or constantly remind him that he thinks that Kaito is Kid.

While that was going on, they heard what Keiko had said about Aoko being Kaito's bride and Akako was inwardly annoyed even though she didn't show it. Hakuba gave Kaito a smirk as Kaito himself looked surprised at the sudden announced of the Kaitou Kid and his princess bride of last winter's ski trip.

Aoko just slammed her head on the desk and Kaito looked over with a worried expression.

Just then Keiko added, "hey maybe we can do a group costume, like you know, for example we can have Kaito-kun be a lion, Koizumi-san a witch, no offense, I mean the beautiful ones like a beautiful enchantress, and Hakuba-kun a wardrobe, again offense but yeah, last role." She gave him a sheepish grin as he looked unamused at her costume suggestion.

Kaito muttered with a deadpan expression, "Aoko makes a better lion."

Then he said after a thought, "or we could do something like Aoko being Belle, I can be the prince, Akako can be the enchantress, Keiko Mrs. Potts and Hakuba the clock. What was his name again?"

"Cogsworth." Aoko said with a smile as she had sat up straight again. Beauty and the Beast was one of her favorite movies growing up and she wasn't sure if Kaito was discretely trying to cheer her up or he genuinely thinks that they should be the general cast of the movie.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Kaito said. He inwardly smiled when he saw Aoko cheering up as he knew she loved the movie even until now. _You're such a kid sometimes,_ he thought fondly of his childhood friend as the mere topic of the movie can get her attention.

"I believe Momoi-san could also fit the role of the talking wardrobe." Hakuba said in a matter of fact manner.

"Hey! I said no offense!" Keiko protested.

"Then I mean of no offense to you as well for saying that you could also be the talking wardrobe." Hakuba persisted, he didn't enjoy being call a wardrobe.

"I'd rather be Chip or Lumiere." Keiko grumbled with a pout.

Akako smiled a near invisible smile at Hakuba's snide and salty remark. There were times when she sort of maybe admires Hakuba, and she does think that he is good looking, but he was already a slave to her as he wasn't immune to her beauty as Kuroba Kaito is.

That said, she could easily get Hakuba's attention, as Hakuba can be at times smitten by her, yet Kaito has never even looked once let alone twice at her.

She clenched her teeth tightly together at the thought, and decided that Halloween was the best time to let her demons loose and perhaps another enchantment spell to use on Kaito and win his affections making him a ska who to her.

She sat snickering evil laughs silently in her seat as Kaito gave a shiver.

 _I'm getting a bad feeling about tonight,_ he thought as he crossed his arms and rubbed his hands up and down his arms to ward of the chills that he was suddenly getting. Akako smiled evilly in her thought, as today was the day that her magic was at its highest and most strongest peak.

 _Kuroba Kaito, today will be the day that you will become my slave forever. Ah ha ha ha ha ha._ Akako began her plan of which spell to use as Kaito let out a sneeze.

 _Yeah, I'm getting some serious bad vibes here._ Kaito thought as he once again shivered slightly in his seat.

Later that day, as they had gone home from school about an hour ago, Aoko had made Kaito go grocery shopping with her again as she was having a Halloween party since her dad was once again busy with work and wouldn't be coming home late that night. As Aoko was cooking up the store bought food with Kaito's help, they had also bought costumes on their way home, the doorbell ring indicating their first guest.

"The party wasn't supposed to start for another hour." Aoko muttered as she headed for the door. Kaito nodded but had to quickly turned his attention to the food, to keep it from burning, before he could make a snide remark.

"Hey Aoko!" Keiko said sauntering in like she lived there, as she came over often. She was already in costume. She had switched out her regular hair ties and had tied her hair up in a ponytail instead of her regular pigtails, wearing a headband with a teapot on it.

The whole group had decided on the Beauty and the Beast theme due to Aoko's persistent persuasion and because Hakuba didn't want to be a wardrobe.

Keiko, choosing to go with Mrs. Potts, also wore a dress with the skirt of it running just slightly above her knees.

The dress had a white top with gold trims along the sleeves and a gold bow to tie across the waist. The skirt, also had gold trimmings at the bottom, while the skirt itself has blue, purple and pink designs following the pattern as seen in the character from the movie.

She also wore below knee level stocking and a light purple shoes to complete the costume. She twirled around in it to display for her friend who had to admire the intricate details of the dress.

"Keiko, you're early, so we don't have anything much to serve yet." Aoko said as she and Keiko headed black to the kitchen where Kaito still stood manning the food.

"Aoko do something!" He wailed as the various began steaming and the oven started beeping, indicating that their store bought pumpkin pie was done.

The two followed along by Keiko, who had offered to help, seeing as her friends were running frantically amuck saving one dish after another, scrambled about the kitchen.

About some fourth minutes later, they had finished cooking/baking the food and sat down to rest. Hakuba had joined them halfway through and had been banned from being in the kitchen after he has set fire to the packaged mashed potato. _And that was a mystery worth solving,_ Kaito thought as he glanced at the clock, perhaps he should change into his costume. He had chosen to be the prince version of the Beast, as he didn't feel like putting on a mask today. Maybe it was because he felt the need to actually imitate the person he's disguising as, and that would be bad as Hakuba would use that against him.

Hakuba had also came in costume, Cogsworth, by popular demand, and was now sitting and talking to Keiko as Kaito and Aoko had left to go change into their costumes just moments before.

As Kaito and Aoko returned, they by chance had entered at the same time making it looks like the scene where Belle and the Beast were at the top of the stairs about ready to dance. Belle in the yellow dress, and the Beast in the blue suit, as were Kaito and Aoko's costumes.

Keiko started humming to _'Beauty And The Beast'._ Out loud she sung, "tale as old as time…"

Hakuba let out a small smile as seeing the two did indeed look near to identical to the scene. Kaito, ever being the gentleman, held out a hand to Aoko and lead her to the middle of the living room as they mock played the dancing part from their childhood movie, (Aoko's favorite scene too) and Keiko and Hakuba joined in by signing the song as Kaito lead Aoko gracefully through their mock ballroom.

Akako had mentioned being late and won't be able to make it to the party, so that they didn't have to wait for her and could just eat. She also mentioned that she'll be there by the time that they headed out to go trick-or-treating.

When they had had their fill of food, the four left Aoko's house and headed down the street where they were to meet Akako.

As they met up with her she gave them a friendly smile and 'innocently' offers them each candy. Kaito was hesitant and skeptical as he didn't believe anything coming from Akako would be deemed as truly edible as she could have cursed it.

Seeing as the other three had no issue eating the candy, he hesitatingly took a small nibble from it and waited. A few minutes passed, they were now walking along the streets and trick-or-treating among the houses on the street, and nothing happened so he finished the candy and checked again to see if their was something sketchy going on.

When he allowed a few more minutes to pass and nothing happened, he let out a silent sigh of relief. He could bet that Akako would try some other form of enchantment spell using that candy bar, but seeing as nothing did happen to him, he figured that perhaps she was just in a good mood as today was a holiday she would most definitely enjoy.

Akako too and noticed that Kaito had eaten the candy bar, and according to her calculations and expectations, the spell she had castes in that particular should have come into play the moment he ate it.

 _Did I do something wrong?_ She wondered as she went back to think about the spell and how she had carried it out. It wasn't possible she had followed that spell to the last drop, and it puzzled her that it didn't work. _How can you keep defying me like this!_ She thought angrily although she didn't let her emotions show.

Her being the enchantress was a good match for her, yet she can never tell why Kaito was nearly immune to all her charm spells.

 _That should have work, I am at my strongest today, he shouldn't have been able to reflect that spell._ Akako thought again with a frown which no one noticed.

Kaito on the other hand, had noticed Akako glancing back once in a while until he has finished the candy. _So she did do something to it,_ he thought with a comical annoyed face.

 _Too bad it didn't work,_ he mentally stuck his tongue out at Akako.

In the meantime, Akako wonders if she had mixed up the candies, but seeing as no one else there was showering her with compliments and trying to get her attention, then Kaito must have just not been affected by her spell, which annoyed her to no end.

 _Why? Why does he always defy me. How can he defy me._ Akako thought. Try as she might, she couldn't come up with any conclusion as to why Kaito could be immune to her spells as it has never happened before.

 _Hmm, I wonder what tantei-kun is doing this Halloween._ Kaito thought, deciding to ignore the shivering stares Akako was giving him now and then.

Conan walked out in his grim reaper costume and followed Ran, already in her angel costume once again, and they headed towards Professor Agasa's house.

At the Professor's, the kids and Haibara were already dressed up and ready as well, with the Professor in his typical lab coat and suit outfit and waiting for Conan, Ran, and Sonoko to arrive.

As Conan entered, he had his hood pulled low over his head for maximum effect for his costume.

"Took you long enough," Genta grumbled we've been waiting for hours.

 _Well, we would have been earlier if Ran hadn't spent so long with her hair._ Conan thought with a comical deadpan expression.

"Aww come on Genta-kun, we came early because you wanted to have lunch." Ayumi said as she too entered the hallway to greet the guest.

"Aww, what a cute costume Ayumi-chan!" Ran said as she and Sonoko too came into the hallways.

Ayumi gave a sweet smile as she said "thank you Ran-Oneesan. Your costume is really pretty too."

"You bet. That costume won her our costume contest." Sonoko added in beaming brightly. She was dressed in her previous costume just as Ran was before when they were at school.

"Wow really?" Mitsuhiko asked as he came into the hallway with the Professor and Haibara.

"What did you win?" The kids asked.

"Just a $15 gift card MoolaShine." She said, and added, "I gave it to Conan-kun. You know how he likes that place."

"Hmm, hey Ran, come to think of it wasn't that Shinichi-kun's favorite coffee shop too." Sonoko said.

 _Shit! Don't connect anything!_ Conan thought with mild desperation.

Haibara, seeing Conan in distressed and taking this as potential trouble to secret identities and what not, stepped up and said, "that place is popular among a lot of people, and it's also a favorite to many."

She then proceeded to give a big and bright childish smile for good measure.

"All right, are we all ready to go?" Professor Agasa asked, and everyone nodded. Then, they proceeded to all leave the house, trick-or-treat bags in tow.

"Where to first?" Mitsuhiko asked.

"Maybe we can try next door." Ayumi suggested.

Okiya Subaru had been staying in the Kudou's mansion for nearly a year now. Conan had allowed him, since he had a feeling that Subaru was on his side.

"Yes, but there are more house a little ways down the street." Ran said, "when we were kids Shinichi and I would go trick or treating there."

"Ahh, that's true. I used to come once in awhile too. Except on most years I usually go to my family's Halloween parties." Sonoko said in reminiscence.

"Then let's go!" The three kids yelled dragging along the Professor and Haibara.

As Conan followed along, he remembered that he had received a text message from a certain person sometime back and haven't looked that it yet.

Pulling out his phone, he looked at the message. _-Oi Kudou, I found something that I think ya might like.-_

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 **A/N:** Okay first off this was a random Halloween special that I decided to write. And MoolaShine is like there version of Starbucks that I made up lol. Also, this story might have major grammar and typos as I haven't proofread this. And I'm sorry if the story doesn't connect well as I was trying to get the story out by Halloween (*´꒳`*) yeah that's pretty much all I have to say on this and have a happy, fun, and safe Halloween. And look forward to the next few chapters as it will be a short mini trilogy. Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Enter: Hattori Heiji

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 **Disclaimer/Warnings (not sure what you call these):** Umm...well first I guess I should say that I have absolutely no knowledge of kendo and or how it's like, so what I put in this chapter might not be as accurate and I'm sorry. I mean...I went through the manga to see what the equipment bag was called lol. And uh...I guess some spoilers if you haven't seen I think up until episode 800+ of Detective Conan and the manga chapters for those episodes….yeah...info ish on Bourbon…Uhh...I guess that's it for now? Have fun reading! ^_^

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After their little Halloween adventure, Conan and Ran had returned home at around 9:00 PM. Kogoro as usual was slouched over his desk, cans of beer cluttered about him and a rerun of one of Okino Yoko's shows played on the TV.

"Oh my god, dad how many did you have." Ran muttered in anger and annoyance once they had entered a she saw the sight before her. Kogoro was passed out and Conan admittedly had no idea who he felt sorry for more: Ran, for her bumbling drunk father, or Kogoro, for having to face Ran's rath come tomorrow morning.

As they sat down for lunch the next day, breakfast had be full of yelling (from Ran) and and grumbles (from Kogoro) Conan decided to ask them if they could all go to Osaka. Last night when he had read the message from one Hattori Heiji, it admittedly left him wondering what the dark skin osakan could have found that was so intriguing.

"Ne, Kogoro Ot-chan, Heiji-niichan said that he is having another kendo match that he wanted us to come see." Conan said causally, hoping that Ran would somehow pick up on that and demand her father that they go to Osaka.

When he had texted Heiji back, he had first received angry annoyed texts and why the super day late reply, to which Conan had ignored until he read the last text, which read: _\- I'm gonna be in another kendo match, use that as ya excuse ta get here. I think ya really want ta see what I've found-_

He didn't elaborate more and when Conan had asked he only got the response of just come there as soon as possible. Though it did annoy him that Heiji had not told him what was so important and needed looking at, he decided it wouldn't hurt to go there anyways as it was probably another case that the other wanted him to help with.

"What? That Osaka brat wants us to come again? I swear we always run into some kind of trouble whenever we go there." Kogoro grumbled and Ran glared at her dad.

"Dad, since Heiji-kun went through the trouble of invited us, we should just go." Ran said conversationally. Conan smiled and nodded along.

"Besides I haven't seen Kazuha-chan in a while and it would be nice to see them again." She said this time her voice held no room for argument.

 _I knew I could always count on Ran._ The shrunken detective thought at his childhood friend fondly.

Grumbling and complaining some more, Kogoro finally complied to his daughter's wishes. Ran beamed back at her dad as they planned to leave tomorrow morning for Osaka to get there in time for Heiji's kendo match this time around.

 _Success,_ Conan thought as he hid a smile and set Heiji a text of confirmation that they were going to come tomorrow.

The next morning, as Conan awoke, all packed and ready due to Ran's nagging and excitement, they left the detective agency behind and left for the train station to Osaka.

Conan fell asleep on the train ride there, so it didn't seem like a long trip for him.

The moment he, Ran, and Kogoro stepped into the platform of the train station, a girl with brown hair tied up in a ponytail by a yellow ribbon bounded up to them and gave Ran a crushing hug to which she responded with a similar one.

"Kazuha-chan! Good to see you again!" Ran said with a beaming smile. When she notice Heiji just about a foot away waving at them with a bright smile of his own, she added "Heiji-kun too."

"Ran-chan come on let's go. Have ya eaten yet? We can get food." Kazuha offered. As if on cue, Kogoro's stomach growled fervently with hunger.

He let out one of his loud laughs as he said, "what are you kids waiting for? Let's go eat!" And he marched away leading them out of the train station to hail a taxi.

Conan and Heiji lingered back behind to exchange greetings and with an inquiring look from Conan, Heiji whispered loud even for only the two of them to hear, "I'll tell ya later Kudou," he looked in the direction of the girls and Kogoro, "we can't let them or anyone else overhear this conversation." Conan gave him a confused look but went along with it.

"What the hell did you even find Hattori." Conan muttered but didn't say more on the subject at hand as they had caught up with the others and where getting into the taxi that Kogoro had hailed.

Moments later, and they arrived at the Hattori household and were greeted by Heiji's parents: Hattori Heizo, Heiji's father the Police Superintendent of Osaka, and Hattori Shizuka, Heiji's mother.

They ate rice curry there, and while the adults talked, the three teens and the shrunken teen left to hang out with their friends respectively. Ran and Kazuha went the garden in the back most likely for girl talk and Heiji seizing this opportunity, went to his room to get the object that he had found and had to show Kudou.

Kazuha and Ran sat down on on the grass after the they reached the backyard.

"So Ran-chan, how is it with Kudou-kun? Has anything between the two of ya progressed since his confession to ya in London?" Kazuha asked voice filled with only curiosity.

Ran gave her friend a small smiled as she shook her head no. "I'm afraid not Kazuha-chan. And I still haven't actually responded to his confession either." She said and Kazuha nodded knowingly.

"That was also nearly a year ago too, I wonder if he even still feels the same." Ran added although there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Of course he does. He must, I mean he really cares about ya right? And ya both childhood friends and all. I bet ya that he's been in love with ya all this time and only had the courage ta tell ya then. If it's anything like me and...and…" she stopped her ranting in favor of calming down her heated face as Ran laughed and smiled fondly at her friend.

"Like you and Heiji-kun?" She asked as she couldn't pass up the opportunity to to tease her friend a little. Smiling, Kazuha nodded, "yeah that ahou." She agreed.

Ran let out another amused laugh, then turned serious again as she said, "I'm not so sure anymore Kazuha-chan. I mean yes I love him but I think it's fading. In a way I know that I will always love Shinichi but I'm not so sure if I truly love him in a non platonic way. I've been waiting and worrying for so long, I don't know if he'll ever come back. I can wait for him forever but I'm not so sure about the whole relationship part." She looked away with a sad smile as Kazuha place a comforting hand on Ran's shoulder.

After a moment, Ran asked, "do you think he feels the same way I do? I mean I made him wait for so long without giving him an answer to his confession. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I've moved on from him and all I really want is my childhood friend to come back home and safely. I just want him to finish his case and come back."

"Well I guess this is something ya just have ta sit and think about. I mean if ya really have moved on from Kudou-kun, you'll just know. I think it'll just click ya know, like how it's like when ya fall in love, it'll just click." Kazuha said after a minute or so of silence.

Ran nodded, "I suppose you're right Kazuha-chan. Maybe I'll figure it out if I talk to him again or better yet, if he comes back to visit again."

"I think so too." Kazuha said quietly and changed the subject.

"So do you know how Kudou-kun is doing on his case?" She asked out of curiosity more than anything else.

Ran shook her head again indicated she didn't know. "He's always so secretive about it and never says much on it. All I know is that he is following leads across the world. At least that's what he's been telling everyone."

"That's some big case isn't it?" Kazuha asked quietly and once again Ran gave a nod.

"He used to always talks nonstop about his cases and now he won't even say a word about it." Ran sighed.

"I'm sure you'll hear all about it when he's solved it all." Kazuha said reassuringly to her friend and Ran gave a grateful smile.

Back inside the house as the adults and girls were elsewhere talking, Conan followed Heiji to his room.

Looking cautiously around and motioning for Conan to come in, Heiji quickly locked the door when Conan entered which elicit and quirked eyebrow from his miniature friend. Heiji made no movement to explain, as he went quickly to his closet and dig out a rusty dirt clad box to which he handed to Conan.

When Conan raised his eyebrow at his friend again, Heiji said in a rushed quiet tone, "just hurry and open it Kudou."

Without further words exchanged, Conan opened the box.

In it, he found several pieces of papers, documents and a picture of someone all too familiar to him and Conan let out a sharp gasp.

The picture was of Tequila, a member of the Black Organization who had died by a bomb during a suitcase mix up.

"What the hell is this?" He breathe quietly. Conan's eyes hardened at the thought of the two men in black and the whole organization all together. They had ruined him and his life and he wasn't about to forgive them for that.

"I'm not so sure, but maybe these information can't help ya. I did look through it myself but I hardly know anyone who was referred to." Heiji explained, "maybe ya can use it ta ya advantage, and if ya need help I'm always here ya know."

"Don't get in ta any trouble that will upset that neechan so much ya hear." Heiji added as an afterthought.

"Hattori…" Conan said with a slight smile as his best friend, "sometimes you really can surprise me." And this time, Conan didn't even bother to hide his delight in finding low key clues and information on Rum and their boss.

"Look here," Conan said passing the picture of Tequila to Heiji, "that guy was killed by a bomb planted in a suitcase meant for someone else. That happened when we went to a convention where these game designers were making a game based off of Ot-chan." Heiji nodded waiting to see if Conan would go on, which he did.

"And these people, Rum, is literally Anokata's right hand. Although it's still implied that no one knows if Rum is a man or a woman as each description of Rum is different. Vermouth may be Anokata's favorite, but she's still not on Rum's level." Conan explained further an Heiji nodded in comprehension once again.

"So basically, what ya saying is that no one knows who this Rum person is, just that Rum is the big man's right hand." Heiji concluded and Conan nodded his confirmation.

"Haibara wouldn't give much information to me either but seeing as she was just their scientist, I doubt she knows who Rum is either. I mean when I asked Akai-san he was reluctant to tell me at first but even he isn't so sure of Rum's identity." Conan said giving Heiji a basic sum up of all he knew.

"Hey Kudou, what about that Bourbon guy? Ya know the one who's a secretly a secret agent and was only in the organization to bring them down." Heiji said in hopes that maybe that person knew something more.

"Furuya Rei, or his alias Amuro Tooru, most commonly known to us as Bourbon, yeah he's an agent who does whatever it takes to reach his goal. Which is why I can't trust him." Conan said as he rifled through the papers in search for more information that he could use.

Seeing as these papers will need a careful look through, Conan and Heiji decided to put them away and hide it into the depths of Conan luggage for later.

Just then they were call to dinner, and quickly hiding the box, they left the room to go out to eat.

As they finished eating and got ready for bed as Heiji's kendo tournament was the following day, Conan once again followed Heiji to his room as he was to stay there and Kogoro in the guest room. Ran had another guest room of her own and Kazuha had decided to stay over to keep Ran company.

"Hey Hattori, where did you find that box?" Conan asked after he had settled into the futon laid out for him.

"It was near a forest area, I was looking for clues during one of my cases and found it. First I thought it was just some jewel box and when I opened it well, ya know the rest." Heiji said as he too laid on his bed arms crossed behind his head as he looked at the ceiling.

"I think that box belonged to Tequila, when I heard him talk, he had a kansai dialect." Mumbled Conan, eyes tired.

"Makes sense then, why that box was all the way in Osaka. But Kudou don't forget that I'm with ya the whole way in takin that organization down." Heiji said his time of voice stated that he'll help even if his friend won't fill him in on much in fear of risking Heiji's safety.

"I can't not let you meddle huh." Conan muttered, although he was grateful to his friend for all the help.

"Nope." Heiji said and with that the two lapse into companionable silence and not long after, they drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the house was a bustle of chaos as Heiji went about collecting his gear for the kendo tournament and arguments between Heiji and Kazuha here and there.

Conan, Ran, and Kogoro sat outside the front with Kazuha as they waited for Heiji. The tan detective's father had left earlier that morning to the police station but not before he wished his son the best of luck in the competition. Heiji's mother was accompanying them, but she was inside the kitchen preparing some snacks to bring along and refused the help of the four that now sat outside.

Moments later Heiji burst out with a duffle bag and his bougu bag slung over his shoulders as his mother calmly stepped out of the house and locking the front door behind her.

"Let's go!" Kazuha exclaimed, "Heiji you have to win this competition, no more running around and solving cases, leave that to Mouri Ot-chan. He's the detective."

Heiji gave her an annoyed look before yelling, "Ahou! I was the only detective at the scene remember. I couldn't just let the murderer get away!"

"You didn't have to throw the competition either idiot!" Kazuha yelled back.

Ran was able to calm them down, and they all went into two taxis and on towards where the tournament was being held.

It was during the finals of the tournament and Heiji was up against his kendo rival, Okita Soshi.

"Go Heiji! Win this and bring home the trophy! Ya better win or else!" Kazuha yelled from where she was standing in the stands on the sides.

 _Oi, oi, is threatening me to win even considered as moral support?_ Heiji thought as he blocked an oncoming strike from his opponent.

"Do your best Heiji-kun!" Ran shouted pumping her fist in the air for emphasis.

Heiji continued to block another attack, and spotting an opening made his move and nearly succeeded but was blocked at the last second.

A quick look over to the stands to a very unimpressed Conan who gave Heiji a look that practically stated, 'Hattori, if you don't win this competition and get first place, I'm going to make fun of you and call you an idiot loser for the remainder of the time that I'm here.'

Heiji felt extreme annoyance at Conan's silent taunting, well because Heiji was always so short tempered, and within an instant he immobilized his opponent and won the match and the tournament.

"Yay! Heiji-niichan won! He did it!" He heard Conan yell with glee and had to roll his eyes at his friend's strange sense of encouragement.

The two girls, along with Kogoro, and Shizuka all joined in with Conan to clap and yell their congratulations to Heiji who went up to shake hands with his opponent and to go claim his trophy.

"Yes! You did it!" Kazuha exclaimed excitedly as she ran up to Heiji to wrap her arms around his neck to give him a quick hug and nearly pulling back immediately. They both turned their faces away each with a bright red blush on their face.

Conan stood by and smirked at Heiji who glowered down at him.

Later, when Heiji had changed out of his gear and back into regular civilian clothes, they all decided to head to a restaurant to eat and celebrate Heiji's victory.

"Where should we go to?" Kazuha mumbled to herself as the group walked along the sidewalk.

"How about Fukutaro?" Shizuka turned to ask the kids. When receive a number of nods and sounds of agreement plus a "hey good idea mom!" from Heiji.

As they entered the shop, Kogoro's mouth watered at the scent of heavenly food that came from the front of the restaurant.

"Wow, interesting when you can see the food cooked in front of you. Right, Kazuha-chan?" Ran said as the two girls made their way up front as well.

Kazuha nodded fervently and the followed Heiji's mother and took their seats. The two boys followed after and Heiji was bragging about how this restaurant was good and the best here in Osaka and how Tokyo won't have one that with rival it.

Conan just rolled his eyes at his friend and took his seat with Heiji doing the same.

After they had eaten and left the restaurant a bloodcurdling shriek was heard nearby and with a quick exchange of looks, Conan and Heiji rushed in the direction of the scream.

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 **AN:** Okay, so the first part of the miniature Osaka trilogy [is that what you call a three part arc? I'm too lazy to search it up ^_^] and let's see...I probably won't be updating for awhile because thinking of what happens next will take time and be a pain for me. (*´꒳`*). And for the "ahou" word, google says that's how it's spelled...I always thought that it was spelled "aho"...who knew? Oh and Fukutaro is a real restaurant in Osaka lol. Also, Heiji's opponent if you guys don't know, is an actual character and he was originally from Aoyama Gosho's Yaiba manga series. And I actually put a title for this chapter yay! Not sure if I'll do that for others eheh. And poor Ran… well, I'm sorry but not sorry because I need her to move on from Shinichi and him from her because well...the plot *wink *wink Anyway sorry for the short chapter but this is a mini arc… well, bye for now, and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!


	10. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Investigations

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 **Warnings:** Slight swear words and semi graphic description of a dead body. That's all for this chapter.

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Rounding the corners and skidding to a halt in front of the alleyway about one or two blocks away from the restaurant where they had heard the scream, Conan and Heiji looked wide eyed at the scene displayed before them.

At the end of the dead end alley, sat a woman hunched down, her arms splayed about her, unmoving.

Fearing the worst, Conan and Heiji gave each other a slight nod of silent communication, and slowly approached the still woman.

Her dark brown dyed hair was smeared with blood and shadowed her face as her head was bent over Conan noted once he was close enough to see the figure clearly.

Hoping on all things that the woman was just unconscious, Conan approach her carefully and checked her wrist for a pulse. While her body was still warm, Conan couldn't feel and sign of life in her and he bit his lip worriedly as Heiji parted her hair slightly to take a look and Conan knew that it was already too late for the victim when the teenage Osakan muttered a silent "shit!"

"Kudou, take a look at this," Heiji muttered pointing at the woman's throat which had a deep slit across it, the blood mostly drying and stopping, but some still oozed out a little.

"Oi! Brats, get away from the crime scene and let the professionals handle it!" Kogoro came running recklessly over and shooed the two away. Heiji gave Conan a look over Kogoro's shoulder and the diminutive detective nodded his silent understanding, and followed Heiji out of the alleyway and back onto the streets.

"Heiji what happened?" Kazuha asked, worry evidently clear in her voice.

"Someone got ta the lady over there," the dark skinned Osakan jabbed a thumb back towards the alleyway, "you guys better call da cops and ambulance while me and this little guy here go investigate."

Heiji proceeded to ruffle Conan's hair and beamed at the two girls in what he assumed was a non suspicious manner.

"Heiji-kun, Conan is just a child don't drag him into this mess," Ran said protectively, glaring at the detective of the west with warning slate blue gray eyes, and Heiji gave her a sheepish reassuring smile.

"The kid wants ta be a detective Ran-san, and what better way than ta let him help the best of da best. Besides I'm investigating around the area so the kid won't even be near the victim, isn't that better than having him around here," Heiji reasoned with Ran, who looked shocked as she hadn't thought of that and allowed Heiji to lead Conan away from the crime scene as Kazuha had just gotten off the phone with the police.

"Thanks Hattori," Conan said to the detective, when the two of them had walked far away enough from the girls to converse more comfortably and safely.

"No problem Kudou but what's up with Ran-san, she seems...more protective of ya now." Heiji said looking down at his minuscule friend.

At that, Conan heaved a heavy sigh, "to be honest Hattori, I don't know. I think it had something to do with 'me' gone so long you know. It's like she thinks that 'Conan' will disappear forever someday too."

"I see…" Heiji muttered for lack of anything better to say. He felt bad for both of them, but it's not like he could change Conan back to Shinichi and in a sad somewhat twisted way, he knew that once Shinichi came back for good, 'Conan' will have to disappear forever.

Changing the subject to the matter at hand, Heiji asked his friend, "so what do you make of the murder. How do you think she died and where do we find the bastard that killed her?"

Conan moved to his usual thinking pose of chin between thumb and index finger, and hummed thoughtfully. The woman had had her head slammed roughly against the wall behind her and her throat has been slit carelessly, causing it to be jagged and it was deeply cut to top it off.

"The murderer couldn't have gone far, she was still warm when I checked her pulse and her blood had yet to dry, what doesn't make sense to me is why the murderer slammed her head and slit her throat when he could have gone with just one method." Conan said thoughtfully, mind reeling over with numerous thoughts, as he and Heiji kept their eyes peeled for the currently misplaced suspect.

"Kudou," Heiji suddenly halted to stop and nodded over to a man on the other side of the street loitering about, "he was around da crime scene when we first got there."

Giving Heiji a nod that he understood, the two made their way over to the man discreetly, trying not to tip off their would be suspect so soon in the investigation.

When the loitering man notice Heiji walking towards him, recognizing the teen detective from newspapers and TV, he bolted and ran in the opposite direction causing Heiji and Conan to give chase.

"Hey Ahou! Stop right where ya are!" Heiji shouted, swiftly catching up to the fleeing man and tackled him down.

"Why'd ya run? That only makes you more suspicious ya know." Heiji grumbled as he pinned the man's arms behind his back and lead him to the alleyway.

"I had nothing to do with it I swear! I'm her boyfriend, and I ran because I was scared." The man said and compliedly let Heiji lead him back, but not without some minimal struggles along the way.

Conan followed along listening to the man ramble on and soaked in the new found information. _Did he know she was dead before we found her?_ Conan thought to himself and Heiji must have thought of something similar, because the Osakan teen asked the man the same exact question he just thought of.

"Of course I didn't, we were supposed to meet up at the street across from the alley, but when I saw you and Sleeping Kogoro run to the scene I panicked and left!" The man answered them.

 _Well this guy is definitely not a keeper,_ Heiji and Conan thought simultaneously, giving each other an amused look.

When they two detectives and suspect had arrived back at the scene, they noted that two new characters and several police officers were there.

"Otaki-han, this kid and I found another suspect." Heiji said reaching the police inspector and nudging the unwilling man towards the inspector.

"What? I told you I had nothing to do with it!" The man exclaimed and a woman, one of the new people Heiji had noticed looked away sharply when she saw who Heiji had just escorted over.

Pulling Heiji aside, the minuscule detective whispered, "I wonder what her relation is to the guy we just brought in."

"Yeah, she obviously recognizes him, but Kudou, what do ya make of the man cryin his heart out over there." Heiji pointed to the man beside the woman who was currently sobbing devastatingly into his hands on his knees.

"Should I used some kiddie charm to get them to spill?" Conan smirked at the detective of the west and the teen nodded with a smirk on his face in return.

Innocently walking over, Conan slowly approached the weeping man and asked in his most childish concerned tone, "hey Mr...are you okay? Do you want some candy? My sister always gives me some when I'm sad."

Peering over his hands, the man, Kawada Utamara as Conan had learned his name was, stared at Conan teary eyed for a moment before letting out a slight laugh. Conan played along and acted confused when the man laughed a little louder.

"Oh little boy, I just lost my little sister to some cruel being, nothing can cheer me up." Kawada old Conan. The lady beside them took that moment to interrupt them.

"Really? Because I'm sure after a beer you'll just fine Uta." The lady spoke up and Conan trained curious sapphire azure blue eyes at her.

"You know him and the sleeping lady in the alleyway?" Conan asked in high pitched childlike confusion.

"If only she was actually sleeping," Yasue Seka, the lady mumbled and aloud she told Conan, "they're my cousins little one and you shouldn't be around here."

"That's right Conan-kun, let's leave the police, dad and Heiji-kun to their work now shall we?" Ran said coming up from behind and picked up the small boy in her arms, apologizing to the lady and the man if Conan had bothered them and went back to where Kazuha stood. Heiji's mother had gone home when the police arrived, knowing that if her son was there than everything will be just fine.

Conan struggled out of Ran's grasp, tired of her always interrupting him when he was trying to solve a case. He had to find an excuse to get away from the girls so he could continue investigating but he came up with nothing.

Heiji noticing his friend struggling, smirked and chuckled in amusement but decided to help him and made his way over to Conan and the two girls.

"Heiji, what's going on?" Kazuha asked Heiji when she saw him approach them.

"Oh, ya know...just the typical murder, crime scene, suspects, and mysteries." Heiji replied with a shrug. Kazuha gave him a glare for acting so dismissive towards her, but Heiji didn't take notice.

"Who's the main suspect?" Ran asked, hoping that they would solve the mystery soon so she could go elsewhere.

Heiji gave another shrug, "Otogi-han is questionin them now, but the only one acting suspicious is the victim's boyfriend, Maeno Naganori." He gave them more information than necessary hoping that Conan would catch on and thankfully the smaller detective did.

Deciding it was time to go into further investigation, Conan nudged Heiji silently telling him that they should make a break for it and left the girls alone when they were distracted with talking to each other.

"Got anything yet Kudou?" Heiji asked his friend and the shrunken teen nodded an affirmative.

"All the suspects have a relation with one another. The crying man was her brother and that lady next to him was the cousin. And the man you caught was the boyfriend correct? All of them had a motive to kill her, but I still couldn't get close enough to figure out how she died but I'm leaning towards she died by getting her throat slit." Conan concluded to his currently taller friend and Heiji chimed in his agreement.

"Yeah well I learned that the boyfriend was having an affair with the cousin, that takes care of motives for both of them but what about the brother? What's his motive?" Heiji mused and Conan nodded.

"Who knows but there's just something about the older brother that's making me suspect him the most." Conan said.

"Ya too huh," Heiji agreed and the two kept on walking and conversing with each other and working together.

They went about investigating, and Heiji managed to find some clues and Conan found the evidence.

"Shall we shed some light to this dreary case?" Conan asked, smirking at his friend who nodded saying loudly, "you bet! Let's bring down this ahou and expose his sickenin crime!"

Getting things ready, Conan managed to ambush Kogoro unknowingly and knock him out with his antiseptic watch, and Heiji gathered the police and suspects to where Conan awaited.

 _Let the deduction show begin!_ Heiji and Conan thought simultaneously with equally similar cocky smirks.

* * *

 **A/N:** First if all I want to apologize for the long wait for this chapter, and for my deteriorating writing. Looking back, I noticed that my writing for the first few/two chapters was decent but then it got worse and I don't know why this is happening.

I actually write a lot, so I find it strange how my writing style has change and definitely not for the better. That said, I'll still be writing and I hope to improve my writing even more in the future or get it back to where it used to be.

I sincerely hope that next chapter will come out sooner than later and thank you so much for reading my story so far.

I would also like to thank all who have reviewed my story and hope you keep doing it. I honestly am glad for the feedback you've given me and I'm glad that you like this story. I know that it seems pretty long and is a little slow moving, but I can assure you that the story will be faster paced later on.

Again thanks so much for reading and reviewing to everyone who had and will and I hoped you liked this chapter.

I know it's really short and I'm sorry but I hope you liked it anyways.


	11. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Conclusions

 **Warning:** Profanity

* * *

 _Alright now to find ot-chan, dart him, and wrap up this tragic mystery,_ Conan said mentally to himself, as Heiji had went to go report to Inspector Otaki and reel in all the suspects, officers and bystanders-namely Ran and Kazuha.-

"Gotcha," Conan mumbled inaudibly as he found Kogoro hunched over the original crime scene and muttering nonsense.

Without hesitation, Conan aimed his watch at Kogoro and and shot the antiseptic needle directly at his target hitting a perfect bullseye.

Hearing voices and multiple footsteps, Conan smirked to himself knowing Heiji had arrived with everyone and they could now begin their tag team deduction show.

"Hey look ot-chan, I brought everyone here like ya asked me ta," Heiji beamed at the slouched man brightly and giving Conan a discreet wink signaling their start.

 _Well Hattori, since Osaka is your turf, today I'll really just be the assistant,_ Conan smiled from his hiding place behind a tall trash can, shielding himself from the prying view of others.

"Alright let's expose the murderer!" Heiji called out in his usual loud tone and smirked, flipped his hat forward in his typical way to show he's solved a case.

"First of all, she actually died by having her throat slit and not by having her head slammed against the wall as ya may think." Heiji started off, smirk never leaving his expression.

With knowing eyes he continued, "the murderer cut the lady's throat from behind to avoid getting any blood on him as much as possible, but that didn't explain why they slammed her head."

"That's right, at first glance it looked completely unnecessary for the murder to kill her then assault her. But there's a reason they did that, she didn't die immediately so he knocked her unconscious." Conan, mimicking Kogoro's voice through his red voice changing bow tie, picked up. Heiji nodded his head in affirmative when Inspector Otaki looked at him incredulously.

"Yep, although gruesome to look at, the slit on her throat only made her unable to cry out and with the added unconsciousness, she bled to death." Heiji said and his teal emerald eyes hardened into a glare.

"No matter what reason ya had, its unforgivable to kill yer own sister, Kawasaki Utamara-san." Heiji said, voice dropping into a darker tone.

"This is outrageous! I've been patiently standing here listening to a child and an old man spout nonsense this whole time! You don't have any proof that I did anything to her! She was my younger sister, I would never hurt her!" He argued, shouting angrily and Heiji and Conan sighed when they detected fear and panic emanating from the man.

 _This can go so many ways, let's just hope he doesn't attack the girls. I'd maybe feel a little sorry for him if he does._ Heiji thought as he kept a watchful gaze on the now raging suspect.

"We do have the proof, to lock you away for good," Conan, as Sleeping Kogoro said monotonously, and quickly he called, "Conan! Show them the evidence!"

"Yes uncle!" Conan called cheerily, emerging from his hiding place and motioned Heiji and Inspector Otaki over and whispered to them about where the evidence was.

Nodding, Inspector Otaki called over some of his man and told them to go retrieve the evidence where Conan had mention and Heiji gave his minuscule friend a small smirk of a smile.

"Once they come back with it, there's nowhere left to run Kawada-san," Heiji told the suspect, who glared at the teenage Osakan and the hunched over man.

"What about reason? I don't have a reason being that she is my sister! These two on the other hand do have a reason to want my sister dead! Are ya gonna just disregard them all together? I thought you were the most famous detectives in your area yet you can't even solve this crime correctly!" Utamara shouted, heaving heavily for air when he finished his rant.

"Are you saying you know who really did it mister?" Conan asked him in a very childlike innocent tone. That made Utamara shut his mouth immediately, but he continued to frown.

"Of course not brat! I'm not a detective, but if I were to guess, it would have to be one of these two!" He jerk his head over to his cousin and his sister's now ex-boyfriend.

"But ot-chan and Heiji-niichan too, have always told me that detective work is not about guessing. You have to find the clues and shape them together molding them into a perfect structure of completion. Just like a puzzle you need to piece the correct pieces together not just guess where they go randomly." Conan said in all seriousness, Heiji sweatdropped a little, worried for his friend nearly giving something away so he crouched down and ruffled Conan's hair playfully.

"That's right kid, I'm surprised that ya remembered all that! Keep it up and I'm sure yer'll be as great as me when ya come ta be my age!" Heiji smiled brightly when Conan gave him a slightly annoyed look. But he had to thank Heiji for looking out for him, especially when he might forget his situation and slip up.

Soon, the dispatched officers came back with several bags containing a bloody coat, and a small pocket knife.

"We did a quick print check on the knife inspector, it's the same as our suspect, Kawada" one of the officers said and Inspector Otaki nodded.

"Well, care to say anything else Mr. It wasn't me because I'm just the older brother?" Heiji smirked and Utamara let out a animalistic feral growl.

"Like I cared for the bitch anyways! It was always her! She got everything and I was the older brother who was forgotten and never got anything! She who took everything from me and left me with nothing!" Utamara shouted as he was being handcuffed and ignoring the officers who were reading his rights and telling him that he had the rights to remain silent as anything he does or say could be used against him in a court of law.

"...Uta, your sister...it's too late now but she always looked up to her perfect hard working older brother. She always felt bad that your parents always favored her more so she took up a job secretly to get you that Ferrari you always wanted, but now-that will never come to be." Yasue said solemnly, and gave him a pitiful look when he glared at her disbelievingly.

After hearing what his cousin had said, he became silent and with little resistance, allowed the officers to lead him into the back of the police car.

"That was terrible," Ran said as tears formed in her blue slate gray eyes, and Kazuha nodded equally nearing tears.

"Terrible as it is, there are people like that out there," Heiji muttered solemnly watching the police cars drive away, the remaining innocent suspects taken in for a report of the event and some questioning.

The teens and one shrunken teen were interrupted, when a loud yawned sounded from the back and one Mouri Kogoro woke up glancing confusedly about him.

"Ot-chan! Thanks for the help today!" Heiji said with a forced smile and Ran nodded enthusiastically.

"You did great as usual dad!" Ran exclaimed and Kogoro, although he had no idea what they were talking about, beamed and laughed loudly at the praise.

Conan and Heiji exchange sly smirks with one another and left the alleyway with Heiji calling a taxi for them.

Later that day, after they had gotten back to the Hattori household and had dinner, Conan and Heiji were back in Heiji's room scrutinizing over the box's contents.

"Oh, I didn't mention this before but I met Vermouth at a party ot-chan was invited to. Although it ended up with another murder," Conan sighed and Heiji looked interested.

"Somethin happened?" He prodded his shrunken friend.

Conan shook his head in confusion, "I'm not sure what to make of it, but Vermouth told me that something will happen at the Haido Hotel in a few weeks time. What do you make of it?" Conan asked Heiji in hopes of finding an answer.

He had been pouring over the cryptic message for a while now and all he knew was the time and date of it.

"Can't say, there some event going on in a few weeks?" Heiji asked and Conan nodded.

"Yeah some kind of gala for rich people. Knowing them, they might use the gala as cover up for something or for another assassination. I don't know of any possible target but I'm guessing that besides Vermouth, Gin and Vodka are going to be there as well. Also if they are there then Chianti and Korn are most likely to be on the outside waiting to snipe down someone." Conan answered and shuddered at the near impending doom for a person he knew he can't save.

"Hey, it doesn't hurt to try right? This is ya, yer'll come up with somethin I'm sure. What about the FBI guy that went into hidin after he faked his death. Shuichi Akai?" Heiji interjected, he knew well enough that Akai was extremely good and reliable in such situations like this.

"Hmm, I have considered asking him, but I don't want to blow his cover. Gin knows Akai well and if he finds out he's still alive, Kir, or rather Hondou Hidemi, will be in trouble and possibly at risk of her life. I can't risk that but I guess I can talk to Akai-san about this for someone help." Conan said although he sounded like he was mainly just talking to himself instead.

"What about the little scientist girl?" Heiji wondered and Conan shook his head vehemently.

"I can't let her know, she'll try to stop me from going!" Conan protested.

"...but she might know something, important information that you may need." Heiji pointed out after a moment of thought.

"By the way, when is the hotel hostin the event?" Heiji asked Conan.

"Next week, on Wednesday at 10:00 am to 12:00am." Conan answered immediately and Heiji looked thoughtful, wondering if he should come along to help but Conan interrupted his train of thought, "don't even think about it. If I need something I'll be sure to message you."

"Kudou, I'd still meddle no matter what. Don't just go runnin in by yaself like that." Heiji countered, challenging his minuscule friend.

"...fine, but be careful. I'm sick of putting people in danger because of my personal vendetta." Conan resigned with a sign.

"Kudou...are you an idiot!" Heiji said and hit his friend in the head to 'knock some sense' back into him.

* * *

 **A/N:** Yay! Chapter 9 is finished and with that, my mini Osaka trilogy is finished. Also I wasn't too sure how to write Heiji's accent so I kinda made him speak like Hagrid from Harry Potter aha. And sorry for the short chapter :) Next up: getting closer to the black organization so I hope you'll anticipate that, and I'll do my best to make it worthwhile.

And thanks for reading I'll be back with chapter 10 after I finish my finals for my summer classes next week!


	12. Chapter 10

**Notes:** Sorry for the wait. Also thanks for all the reviews so far and for future reviews. Without further ado Chapter 10.

 _Chapter 10_

* * *

Once Kogoro, Ran, and Conan had arrived safely back to Beika, Conan spent his spare time mulling over his next move.

Clearly, the organization is up to something, but his last encounter with Vermouth left him with more questions than it did answers.

Surely, they were after someone. Someone important who would be at the gala. He had looked into the guest list and hadn't been able to pinpoint any liable victim that the organization would be after.

Just then, a thought hit him. _What if they aren't after anyone at all? What if...they're are using the gala as a meet up? Yes, that is possible...I have to go to the gala!_ Conan thought with great viction.

This was his chance...to get closer to finding more information on the Black Organization, to get his revenge. Now all he needed to do was to come up with a brilliant plan.

"...easier said than done." Conan signed miserably, as he flopped back down on the floor of his shared sleep space with Mouri Kogoro.

 _Maybe I should speak to Haiba about this after all._ Conan conversed with himself mentally, trying to convince himself.

Tomorrow was another school day, so after their late dinner, Kogoro came home late because of a trivial case, Ran sent Conan straight to bed. He didn't complain this time, he needed time to think. To come up with his master plan.

By morning, Conan was walking with Ran to his elementary school. As he waved 'goodbye' to Ran's retreating form, he gave the school a spiteful glare.

 _What did I ever do to deserve repeating school again,_ Conan sign inwardly, and plastered on a cheery smile heading to his classroom.

He needed the kids to volunteer themselves into coming to professor Agasa's house again. If he manages to distract Haibara, he could privately talk to the professor in peace about his plan. Given he might get caught, but it was worth a shot.

Once school was over, another boring day on Conan's and Haibara's end, he purposefully mentioned going to the professor's with Haibara, in front of the kids, who brightened up immediately.

"We're coming too!" Gents announced loudly, and marched out the school building once he had changed to his outdoor shoes. Doing the same, the two other kids followed, and the two not-kids walked out at a much slower pace.

"So, what business do you have coming over?" Haibara whispered to Conan, who nearly stopped dead in his tracks but recovered quickly.

"Nothing much, just a quick check up," Conan shrugged nonchalantly, hoping Haibara would drop the subject. Unfortunately, Conan was just never that lucky.

"Does this have something to do with what she told you." Haibara hissed quietly, emphasizing the 'she' to make it clear to Conan who she meant.

"Wha- how?" Conan breathed out quietly, and whipped his head to study Haibara's expression thoroughly.

"I overheard you." Haibara said simply, knowing that later she was going to scold Conan for keeping more secret information from her.

"...then you know I'll stop at nothing to go investigate this." Conan said seriously, trailing a few steps behind Haibara, keeping in mind to speak lowly as the children ahead of them might hear.

"Of course I know that! But that doesn't mean for you to charge head first into something as lethal as this. It's most likely a trap, she's not to be trusted!" Haibara hissed venomously as Conan in a hushed tone. Conan gave her a defiant look, and she glared back.

"Conan-kun! Ai-chan! Why are you fighting?" Ayumi asked, having stopping in front in them.

"Yeah and who can't be trusted? You're not taking a case without us again are you Conan?" Gents narrowed his eyes at the bespectacled boy.

"What else did you hear?" Haibara snapped at them, scanning each kid with a calculating look.

"Just that part, Haibara-san," Mitsuhiko spoke up, a little nervous from Haibara's sharp gaze.

"We were talking about a character from a book." Conan replied smoothly, putting his acting skill to good use.

"A character from a book?" The kids chimed curiously.

"Yeah, in the story, she acts nice to only the main character, and he wants to trust her, but he's also not sure whose side she's on. That's why she can't be trusted." Conan gave an uncaring shrug for good measure.

"So does he end up trusting her?" Mitsuhiko asked in interest.

Conan shrugged again, "I haven't gotten that far yet."

"We're almost at the professor's," Haibara broke in, thankful for Conan's smooth lie, although she has still to deter him from doing something rash just yet.

As the kids entered the huge looming home of Professor Agasa, Haibara turned to give Conan another meaningful look that seemed to say, 'this conversation isn't over yet'.

Conan just shrugged, and went to go find the professor while Haibara set about to get the actual kids more comfy, and hopefully distracted so they won't interrupt anything important.

As the kids were playing a video game, Conan found the professor in lab.

"Hey, Hakase," Conan said and sat down giving the older man a small smile.

"Oh, Shinichi-kun, good to see you. But mind I ask why you decided to drop by?" Professor Agasa asked, quirking an eyebrow knowing full well that the miniscule teen had something on his mind.

"Yeah...remember what I said about _her_?" Conan asked, breaching the unwanted topic.

The professor nodded, "of course. And I clearly remember telling you to not meddle in this. It's a trap, Shinichi-kun."

He stopped his tinkering to give Conan a stern look.

Conan sighed, "I know, but what if I miss something important. Professor, you know I can't live my life like this for long. In just half a year, it'll be the mark of me being a midget for two years. How much longer will it take for me to return to normal? I can't live like this professor… if going is even a small step closer to me getting to be me again, than I have to take this chance no matter the risk. Please, I'm asking for your help, for the sake of my sanity. I need to go." Conan looked pleadingly at the professor who sighed in defeat. He wanted to tell the boy no, that this was dangerous, that he couldn't go, but he knew the small detective was right.

Haibara stood outside the door, listening in on Conan's small speech, the devastation and pleading tone in his voice made her waver in her decision. She was going to find a way to finish the antidote, she vowed silently to herself.

Slowly, she opened the door to the professor's lab, and a collective gasp from the both of them sounded when they saw her enter the room.

"Haibara!"

"Ai-kun!"

Professor Agasa and Conan exclaimed at once, together. Both were sporting wide eyed, shocked expressions.

 _Shit! I'm dead._ Conan thought begrudgingly to himself.

"I'm coming too if you're going to the gala." Haibara announced.

When Conan was about to protest, she interrupted him with a cold glare, "they're my problem too, Kudou-kun. Besides, I might be of service if you need to get into their computer or something." Her voice held no room for arguments, and Conan sighed knowing Haibara spoke the truth.

 _Damn, so much for my plan to have her distracted by the kids. Maybe Hattori was right, that I should have Haibara help me in this._ Conan reminded himself and he contemplated on what his next move would be.

"Fine, but you are aware of what this means right? I can't say that I can stop her from going after you this time around should she know you are there." Conan said in a very solemn tone.

Haibara held back a shiver at the mention of Vermouth, not nodded stubbornly.

"Of course I am," she replied. Conan nodded again.

"Oh that reminds me, I-" Conan started, but movement from outside the door made him shut up abruptly.

"What are you two doing in here?" Genta asked, rudely shoving his way in. The three previous occupants in the lab room tamed their faces to a neutral expression.

"Yeah, you two keep being so secretive, what were you talking about?" Mitsuhiko narrowed calculating eyes at them.

"Nothing that concerns you," Conan snapped, having lost patience with the nosy kids.

Everyone turned to him with wide eyed expressions in question. Sighing, Conan just shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

 _I have important things to discuss right now, damn it!_ His mind supplied him as he took a deep breath to regain some composure of his usually aloof and cool demeanor.

"Sorry, long day." He offered to the kids and Haibara and the professor knew that it was much more than that. Although, they didn't bother to voice it aloud.

"Let's go play a game!" Conan suggested, plastering on another fake happy smile. _Be a kid, I have to pretend,_ Conan chided himself, and waved to the professor and left the room with the real kids trailing behind him like little ducklings.

Once they were all out of earshot, Haibara quietly says to the professor, "I'll keep working on the apotoxin antidote. This one is close to finish, I can feel it."

Professor Agasa just nodded. He too was working on a new device for Shinichi. He just hadn't a clue when he'd finish it.

Back in the living room, Ayumi stole a glance at Conan only to see him slightly frowning again.

"Conan-kun, are you sure you're okay?" She asked, and Conan curse mentally at the slip up of his mask.

 _What's that thing Kid always says again? Poker Face? I have to keep mine up!_ He told himself with determination, and turned to give her a wide grin "yes, of course."

Seeing the bright smile on Conan again, Ayumi frowned in slight confusion, she could've sworn she saw Conan have a sad look on his face seconds ago.

 _It must have been my imagination,_ Ayumi told herself. Although she was still unsure.

They sat and play problem solving games until they got bored of Conan winning the whole time.

"Let's do something else!" Gents shouted throwing his controller down in frustration. He had gotten last place throughout the whole entire time they played.

"Unfortunately, you're parents just called you kids home for dinner." Professor Agasa interrupted them, entering the living room.

 _Thank god, now I can actually discuss the reason for my coming here,_ Conan cheered silently.

"Awww," the kids groaned simultaneously, and with a small smile, Conan escorted them out the door.

"Well, now that they're gone, why don't we talk about the real reason you're here, Kudou-kun." Haibara spoke up, having finally exited her lab and walked up directly behind Conan, silently.

Conan gave a slight jump, "ahh! Haibara, a warning would've been nice." He frowned at her, although his cerulean blue eyes showed no real hostility.

"But yes, I do have important matters to discuss." Conan nodded, as they all headed backward towards the living room.

Taking a small box from the very bottom of his backpack, Conan put in the middle for Haibara and the professor to see.

"Shinichi-kun...what is it?" Professor Agasa asked, leaning forwards to get a better look as Conan opened the box, revealing all its contents.

"I got this from Hattori," Conan said conversationally, "he literally stumbled on it while working a case."

"So that's why you went to Osaka," Haibara nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, it has information, but some are outdated and some...both Hattori and I can't make heads or tail of it." Conan said with a tinge of exasperation. He's been obsessing over the box's contents ever since returning from Osaka and he still has nothing to show for his search.

"Anyway," Conan looked to Haibara in all seriousness, "I was hoping I can keep the box here for safekeeping, I can't risk leaving it back at the detective agency."

Haibara nodded again to show Conan that she understood.

"Also...is there anything you can tell me from the box's contents?" Conan asked her hopefully. Haibara looked through the papers and tacked her mind for anything useful, in the end, she sighed.

"Nothing, I wasn't too high up in ranks remember? But it has some information on Rum, perhaps we can use it to our advantage." Haibara reasoned.

"I agree, but even with this, it's still information that we've gathered before and nothing new." Conan sighed.

"Perhaps if you look harder?" Professor Agasa suggested.

"I've looked as hard as I can. There's useful information yes, but I feel like with every step forward, there'll always be three steps backwards. Even when I have questions answered, new questions arises." Conan huffed, "that's why I have to go to the gala. There's something there that can help me I'm positive of it."

"Look here, it says that Gin had been plotting to take over as leader," Haibara pointed to a note scrawled in messy handwriting.

"Yeah, I gathered that Tequila must've found out and written that. Hattori and I thought this box must have belonged to him considering the location it was found on." Conan nodded.

"But even if we know that, there's nothing we can do about it," Professor Agasa mused and the two false children agreed.

Suddenly, Conan's -Shinichi- phone buzzed, indicating a text message.

 _-Shinichi, another note from Kid. Can you solve it? Thanks, Ran-_

"In Beika again?" Conan frowned, in confusion. What is that thief up to?

"What is it?" Haibara and the professor asked simultaneously in curiosity.

"Kid, he's stealing another gem that just came in from the Beika museum in two nights time." Conan answers. To himself he thought, _maybe this is a sign that I need a distraction from all this organization shit._

"But why is he stealing in Beika again? Isn't his main turf Ekoda?" Haibara mused to herself.

"Maybe it's because the gem is only showcasing in Beika for one night only. That and because last time, he was here as per Sonoko's uncle's request." Conan reasoned to her.

"Ah, that makes sense. And I suppose the great modern day Holmes will be going?" Haibara smirked at him.

Conan returned the smirk with a confident one of his own, "of course, I wouldn't miss the chance to catch this troublesome thief for the world."

"You're growing an attachment to him," Haibara muttered inaudibly under her breath, while Conan shot back the solved riddle to Ran, ignoring Haibara.

* * *

 **A/N:** I think this chapter sounds a little rush...sorry about that. Well yay for more Kid heists. This one will be different from the last one of course. I want to focus more on the heist this time. ^-^

Thank You for reading! I'll see you chapter 11! With Kid making another appearance!


	13. Chapter 11

**Notes/Warnings:** Okay first of all I'd like to apologize for the extremely late update as a lot had been going on for me, but I'm back! And I present to you Chapter 11!

-There are some mild language

Enjoy!

* * *

"Jii-chan, I've got a good feeling about this diamond." Kaito announced to the elderly man, showing him the large jewel on his laptop screen.

"Yes, it does seem like a likely candidate for the Pandora." Konosuke Jii nodded in agreement as he too examined the gem on the screen.

Kaito nodded, his usual smile turned into a slight upside down frown, as he continued looking at the gem.

He really couldn't understand why people would go so far as murder for eternal life. Perhaps it was just him, but he couldn't imagine living forever. Everyone you knew and loved would have just pass on by, and eventually you'll just end up alone.

It's just sad and miserable, Kaito shook his head to rid himself of the forlorn thoughts and resumed a neutral expression

"By the way, young master, the jewel will be showcasing in the Beika museum. You better be extra careful this time around as well." Jii cautioned Kaito, worried whenever the young teen has an encounter with one certain minuscule bespectacled detective.

"Don't worry Jii-chan I'll be fine." Kaito assured him with a smirk, similar to his alter ego's cheshire smirk. He was always looking forward to a heist where Conan is involved in. He loved the thrill and challenge the heists provided him and for some reason, he's been looking forward for these meet ups more often than he'd like to admit. Perhaps he felt that he can express himself more around Conan than he ever could around anyone else besides his mother and Jii.

He could never tell Aoko about his secret double life, it was just out of the question. He hated it, lying to his best friend, but never letting her know, was just his best bet at the moment.

Kaito really hoped on all things, that Aoko wouldn't ever find out about his secret identity. Even if he doesn't want to admit it aloud, Kaitou Kid had become apart of him, as Kaitou Kid was his father too.

"Let's get the show started." Kaito smirked, and quickly jotted down a riddle that he knew Conan would enjoy solving and handed it to Jii who went to deliver the notice to the Beika police department, and one to their dear old friend, Inspector

Nakamori. Kaito smirked gleefully as he set his plan in motion. This was going to be a lot of fun.

In two nights, in just two more nights, and he will get to have another showdown with the little detective.

 _This is going to be fun!_ Kaito thought with joy, grinning ecstatically. With the note sent and already set, Kaito began planning for his heist after printing out a blueprint of the museum.

Conan let out a tired yawn as he sat in his desk, listening to the same old lessons he had learned before when he was actually a seven year old.

Last night he had stayed up later to think about his plan to 'infiltrate' the hotel. He still didn't think that they were after someone, but he had a plan for that regardless of the situation.

He sighed internally, tired of the Organization, as he half heartedly watched the teacher explain to the kids how addition and subtraction worked.

At least he still had the newest Kid heist to look forward to. _His note sounded like he was practically inviting me,_ Conan remembered the notice that Ran had sent him through text.

That evening when class was dismissed, Conan headed straight home for once, after a quick set of goodbyes to the detective boys and Haibara.

 _The heist is tonight, are you ready..._ both Conan and Kaito thought simultaneously, miles away from each other, getting ready in their own ways for the heist.

Kaito in his Kid outfit and magical gadgets, and Conan with his weapons disguised as normal ordinary everyday accessories.

"Secure the entrances and any other places that can be seen as an entrance!" Inspector Nakamori yelled to his Kid task force loudly.

Hakuba stood by, watching Inspector Nakamori shout his orders, having decided to come all the way down to Beika to catch the thief once and for all. His plan being that he could somehow catch him off guard in unfamiliar territory.

He however, had memorized the museum inside and out, but knowing Kid he'd had done the same, or at least have a middle man map out the surroundings for him.

Conan arrived with Ran and Kogoro at the scene, thankful to the older man for actually attending. Even though the bumbling detective had claimed that they needed his help.

Conan spotted the jewel, The Sea Serpent's Bane, a mile away. The bright large red diamond glinting in its display case, set proudly for all to see.

Sneakily, he ditched Ran and her father to take a closer look at the sparkling gem.

Once near the display, Inspector Nakamori surprisingly allowed him close inspection, Conan stared enraptured by the diamond's beauty. It seemed to be drawing him in, closer.

A sudden voice, a familiar one, startled him from his hypnotic state. Blinking, he slowly turned to look up at his adresser, "huh?" Conan replied intellectually.

"That's one big diamond." A young security guard whistled lowly. Conan nodded in agreement.

The little detective knew full well however, that the guard wasn't a guard at all, still he'll humor the thief for his own amusement for the time being.

"But isn't it strange that it's red though? I've never heard of a red diamond before." Conan answered, pitching his voice to that of a curious child.

Amused, the 'security guard' decided to play along, and explained, " well, you see kid, red diamonds are the rarest among diamonds. And, what's more, I hear this one has got a story behind it. Apparently, it's been passed down from generation to generation of the current owner's family. Inside is said to hold the blood drops of a creature so vile, that when it hits you, you'll turn into a monster yourself."

"Interesting," Conan chirped, and then his smile turned to his typical smirk, an infuriating and knowing one, "and how to do plan to steal this?"

"So you've found me," Kid hummed noncommittally, smirking he asked jokingly, "going to turn me in, Tantei-kun?"

"Huh?" Conan asked confused, "turn who in? As far as I can see, I'm only talking to an _innocent_ museum security guard." His voice laced with pure mockery and sarcasm with his last comment.

 _What is he up to?_ Kid thought, not letting his guard slip for even a millisecond as he watched Conan give a cheery wave and walked away. Away in the direction of the bastard Hakuba, he realized.

 _Damn it Tantei-kun!_ _Stay away from the bastard!_ He thought desperately, ready to materialize into nothingness and hoping that he could speak telepathically with Conan at moments like these. Besides it'd be nice to get to know Conan better...wait, where did that thought come from he wondered to himself.

Once Conan had reached up to where the blonde teen detective stood, he quickly passed on word, in a non suspicious childish manner about the strange security guard who seemed too interested in the diamond, and left, his work done for now.

Out of sheer habit, Hakuba took a glance at the security guard Conan had pointed out, but didn't find anything out of the ordinary, so he disregarded what Conan had said.

 _He's just a kid, what does he know about real detective work?_ Hakuba thought to himself, but the nagging feeling he had that Conan was on to something made him move from his post and confront the sketchy guard himself.

 _It's time!_ Kid grinned to himself as he snapped his fingers moments before Hakuba even had the chance to reach him.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" Kid called out in perfect English, as he threw his hands up for emphasis, and took a sweeping dramatic bow, spotlight on him with the rest of the room dim and dark.

Conan stood by, calmly, waiting to make his move. Charging in like raging bulls as Inspector Nakamori usually does is never effective. He's as cunning as a fox, and can slip through anything, nimb and agile, like a cat. Conan smirked to himself at the thought, it was pretty silly.

Hakuba had joined the heaping dogpile that the Kid task force had entangle themselves into, being near the thief and had attempted to grab hold of him to prevent an escape.

In all but a split second the diamond disappeared, and Kid still perched pristinely on the display case. You would've have missed it all, blinking or not at all.

"And now, with the Sea Serpent's Bane stash away safely from the law, I will now step off center stage." Kid smirked his typical cheshire smirk and disappeared before a poof of smoke only to reappear once more by a large window high about and tumult himself out, snapping his hang glider out, sailing away in the night sky.

"After him!" Inspector Nakamori shouted, and Hakuba had already untangled himself from the mass of limbs to climb to where Kid had stood just moments before, missing him by just a margin.

"Send all helicopter units after Kid!" Inspector Nakamori bellowed in rage, making Conan cover his ears as he had finally decided to migrate nearby.

 _It's no use Inspector, you won't catch him._ Conan thought with an internal smirk, setting out to confront Kid himself. The room was empty now, everyone had gone to catch the thief outside, but little did they know, he had never left the building at all.

"Nice trick," Conan commented conversationally. Smirking his usual 'I've got you, and you didn't outwit me' smirk.

"Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed my show tonight." Kid replied, popping up from behind the display.

"So what is this, one way mirrors that you installed, as the 'security guard' earlier?" Conan stated rather than asked.

"Right you are Tantei-kun," Kid beamed, although he wasn't quite sure why he was happy that Conan had seen through his thought out trick.

"Then that means you never took the diamond." Conan concluded, smirking triumphantly and crossing his arms in a condescending manner.

"Wrong." Kaito grinned, showcasing his perfectly aligned white teeth, as he dangled the diamond back and forth.

Wide eyed, Conan gaped. He was sure that the thief hadn't taken it out earlier, that was a positive, so when?

"But-you...when?!" Conan asked, annoyed and awed at the same time.

"You're the detective, figure it out on your own." Kid smirked once again, getting ready to leave, but not before shining the diamond directly into the moonlight, face dropping when nothing unusual happened to it.

"What you doing?" Conan asked curiously, having seen the thief repeat the process after stealing the jewels many a times before this.

"Nothing particularly, just admiring it. I think I'd rather like to keep this one." Kid smirked teasingly, "wonder how much I can get for it."

Conan scoffed and rolled his eyes at the thief's joke and made a motion to grab the diamond back, intending to not let him get away with it.

"Calm down, Tantei-kun, I don't want this useless diamond anyways." Kid said with a small mocking laugh, and much to Conan's annoyance, Kod took off running, to the rooftops.

"Typical," Conan grumbled as he followed best he could with his shrunken legs.

"Kid! Get back here!" Conan yelled loudly, hoping someone would hear. In one swift motion, he activated a soccer ball and kicked it at the thief, who was barely able to dodge the precise kick.

"That's no ordinary child!" Kid exclaimed breathlessly to himself as he kept running.

 _Damn right I'm not!_ Conan thought with a satisfied smirk as he continued the chase.

Up on the museum's rooftop, Kid slip up to its tallest peak and snapped his hanglider open, ready to take off.

"Forgetting something?" Conan asked, panting and trying to catch his breath. Damn his short legs and smaller body for not being able to handle what he could've done if he had been his normal self. But then again, what was normal to him anymore, it's all gone.

"What could I possibly be forgetting?" Kid smirked, jerking Conan away from his near to depressing thoughts.

"The diamond." Conan said flatly, intending of stalling the moonlight magician to stay grounded until someone came up to help.

"Hmm, if that's what you really want Tantei-kun," the magician shrugged carelessly, and grinned teasingly, "I'll mail it to you for Christmas!"

Conan blinked, then blinked again, then he deadpanned "that's months away idiot."

Just then the door budged open, and out stumbled a very annoyed and ragged blonde teenage detective named Hakuba.

Conan gave a little side glance at the new intruder, while still keeping a close eye on Kid, felt slight annoyance that Hakuba had dared intruded on their little moment together. _Wait, our moment?_ Conan thought slightly shocked, _why do I even care about some dumb thief, I can stop him right now, right here, without help._ But he wasn't, he had been fooling around with the thief the whole time, he realized once more. _There's something wrong with me,_ Conan concluded.

Seeing Hakuba enter, Kid decided that it was time to take his leave as the blonde detective would just be an annoyance to him. A shame really, he had hoped he and Tantei-kun could have talked more or actually do their usual with banter and then a card gun/soccer ball fight. Although he hated Conan's inflatable soccer balls. Hated with a capital 'H'.

"Bye bye for now," Kaitou Kid smirked his inferioriating smirk once again and jumped off, not before tossing to Conan the unwanted diamond.

 _Wasn't what I was looking for anyways Tantei-kun,_ he conversed with himself mentally as he soared through the night sky, the cool air breezing by him.

When Kaito got home, Kid persona safely put away, he realized he never got to stick around for Conan to tell him how he was able to deduce that he never left the room and didn't take the gem at the beginning. Knowing the miniature detective, or at least he liked to think that he did, the boy would probably say something so profound, yet so convincing and accurate.

Kaito gave a slight sigh of wonderment, not knowing when he had started looking forward to Conan's deductions when he couldn't have cared less before.

Back at the Mouri Detective Agency, Conan laid in his futon, thinking about how Kid had stolen the jewel in plain sight. He knew the magician was a slight of hand master, a professional deceiver, but he had been watching, _carefully._ With a sigh, Conan had to admit, that the thieving magician is _really_ good at what he does.

Closing his eyes, he willed himself to relax, since his small body couldn't handle the stress of sleepless nights as his normal one does.

Just then, he cracked open his cerulean blue eyes once more, having figure out how Kid had stolen the diamond. It was so simple and in plain sight that he felt like an idiot not realizing it sooner.

The darn magician had dismembered the alarms on the case display and took out the jewel when his apprentice dressed as Kid, jumped out the window, distracting everyone's attention away from him.

 _Kid, you lame idiot,_ Conan yawn and with that last thought, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N:** Please do leave a review as those are always much appreciated and thank you all my readers and anyone who have read and enjoyed my story so far. Until next chapter (which is _very_ soon)!


	14. Chapter 12

**Notes:** Sorry for the short chapter but Chapter 13 is almost done as well.

Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

* * *

When morning arrived, Conan blinked his bleary blue eyes several times to rid himself of sleep.

Today, today was the day that the Haido Hotel was hosting the gala. Or more the fact that is was an organization member hosting the gala instead of the hotel itself. He hadn't thought of it before, but it seems that even the hotel had organization members in its midst as well.

This just keeps getting better and better he thought with deadpan sarcasm.

He went over his plan again in his head, checking once, and then another time before announcing that he is heading to Professor Agasa's.

"This early in the morning Conan-kun?" Ran asked as she was milling about in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Please Ran-neechan? Agasa Hakase said he came up with a new toy idea!" Conan grinned cheerfully, putting his mother's acting lesson to good use to act like a small excited child with nothing but pure and innocent joy.

Ran gave a slight laugh of fond amusement but nodded her consent after several moments of thought.

"Don't be out too late, and make sure you've all your homework done." Ran said, the last bit more of an afterthought.

Once Ran's father had woken and joined the two in the kitchen, they ate their breakfast and not soon after, Conan grabbed his necessary equipment, checked to make sure he had everything that he needed with him once more, and headed out the door.

On his way over, his mind wandered to another topic, Kaitou Kid. Conan still felt a little miffed that the damn thief had tricked him last night and he hadn't seen through such a simple and cliche trick. But he supposed that was the reason why, because it was cliche that he didn't catch on quick enough.

Then suddenly, as if lightning struck, Conan smirked a little to himself. What if he himself use something so simple to attack the Organization. Extravagant, as Kid has proven, could only go so far.

There were times when the thief proved useful and inspiring even when he wasn't around. Conan had to really thank the annoying magician for the idea.

Another thought crossed his mind however. Yesterday while on the roof as he was talking to Kid he had felt really annoyed that Hakuba had interrupted them. It's not like the time obsessed detective did anything wrong, but Conan just felt intruded on.

He remembered how he had thought in annoyance how Hakuba had dared intrude on -their- his and Kid's moments alone together. It shouldn't have bothered him, when he was actually hoping for someone to take notice that Kid hadn't actually left the museum yet. It was strange and Conan couldn't pinpoint why he felt something like that, so he just shoved all thoughts of it to the very back of his mind and continued on his merry way.

Walking up the pathway to the professor's house, Conan rang the doorbell and not soon after, the door creaked open.

"Kudou-kun, morning." Haibara greeted, letting the bespectacled boy in.

"Ready to tackle some idiots." Conan grinned boyishly at Haibara once he had entered the house.

"Someone's in a good mood, did you have a good time with Kid last night." Haibara smirked, closing the door and crossing her arms.

"I'm going to ignore your implications and just get right to the point," Conan deadpanned, but his eyes still showed his eagerness to confront the organization.

"And your point would be," Haibara prompted, hoping that Conan hadn't come up with anything too crazy.

"Hmm, actually it's a secret." He smirked mischievously and walked off to find the Professor so they can leave.

Once all three had piled into Professor Agasa's yellow beetle, the elderly man drove them towards the Haido Hotel. Parking a distance away but with the hotel still in sight, Conan stepped out followed by Haibara who had donned a pair of glasses for disguise as well.

The two shrunken teens snuck their way in, casually following a couple as if they were their parents and once infiltrated, Conan surveyed his surroundings.

Noticing that Haibara was seriously on edge at being so close to so many Organization members, Conan turned to ask her seriously, "are you positive you want to be here. You can always go back to survey with the Professor."

Haibara shook her head vehemently, "if I'm not here to supervise your stupidity, you'd die for sure."

Conan gave a slight scoffed as he listened in on Professor Agasa's instructions, and motioned for Haibara to follow him up 10 floors.

He didn't mention to Haibara that the one they were tailing was Vermouth. If she even caught wind of what he was doing right now, it would be mission abort. He knew that both Haibara and Vermouth had never gotten along and despise one another so he kept silent and followed where the Professor instructed him of where his target would be.

Earlier, as she stood looking out of one of the hotels many windows, Vermouth had recognized the familiar yellow bug and smirked to herself.

So the little detective had come after all, she conversed with herself as she watched him sneak inside along with the shrunken form of Sherry.

With a mysterious smile, she disappeared into the shadows of the hotels hallway, commenting one last thing, "let the show begin."

* * *

 **A/N:** Coming up next...is?!

Please do review as it is much appreciated and I'll be back next chapter!


	15. Chapter 13

"Kudou-kun, are you insane?" Haibara asked the small detective as she watched him with skepticism as he pulled a small bug out of his pocket sticking it under the door to the Organization's conference room. "We're going to be found out!" Haibara glared at him as the shrunken teen backed away pulling her with him to hide from sight. Conan placed a hand to his ear, turning to Haibara in annoyance giving her a look as if to say, 'do you mind?' I'm trying to listen here!' Haibara glared at Conan more intensely thinking in a pessimistic manner, _we're going to die today. I shouldn't have let him come here._ Right as she was musing that, Haibara noticed Conan widen his eyes, then bright azure blue eyes darkened immensely, the false child clenching his jaw as he continued to listen in.

"What is it?" Haibara asked quietly but urgently as she paid close attention to how Conan's expression darkened drastically. "We need to stop them," Conan announced after a moment of silence as he tilted his head slightly as if to listen better. Haibara quirked a perfectly manicured eyebrow at him, questioning the brilliant detective on what he could possibly mean by his earlier statement. Conan turned slightly to look at Haibara, his azure eyes dead serious as he said in a tone matching his current expression, "I'll tell you later."

Conan turned silent again as he tried to hear more of what the Organization were saying to one another and he heard someone -most likely Vermouth as the voice sounded like hers- talk about Rum. Conan kept his head low, his bags obscuring his face as he learned of Rum's last known location. Still he wished to himself that there was information on who was the second in command instead. He had long narrowed down to three suspects. Now all was left was for him to find the clues to who this person really was, and he had really hoped to learn more than just the latest location of Rum.

Inside the conference room, Vermouth stood leaning by the doorway as she listened to what the other members had to say. Of course, she neither cared nor paid them any attention as she remained more curious on how Conan intended on foiling them this time. She had seen the small boy arrive and it looked like he had brought a troublesome friend along.

 _Sherry, I applaud your bravery for coming here,_ Vermouth inwardly smirked unbeknownst to the other members gathered about her. Early on in the meeting, she had noticed that Conan stuck a bug to the bottom of the door to listen in on them. Mentally, she was relieved that Gin had other business to take care of and wasn't here because she knew that he would have definitely have found the bug immediately as well and it would have gotten very ugly. It wasn't normal for her to care for another person's life, but Conan, or rather Shinichi's, life was different. He along with Ran had saved her life back in New York when they weren't entitled to so she owed him and Ran a great debt of gratitude. However, that alone wasn't enough for her to save his life. Why? He was also the son of Kudou Yukiko, a dear friend, or rather a once dear friend of hers and she didn't want to hurt her in any way. Which is one of the reasons why she had been protecting Shinichi up until this point.

After the topic of Rum had been breached, she decided that Conan had had enough information and detached the bug discretely and crushing it to pieces. _Until next time,_ Vermouth again smirked invisibly as the conference went on for a while longer. She knew the impatient shrunken teen wouldn't just sit around but knowing that Sherry was with him, the girl will not let him do anything rash. So she waited until all talk was over to confront the teen herself.

"Motherf-" Conan started when Haibara gave him a pointed glance asking what was wrong this time. Conan sighed and counted backwards from 10 to calm himself before telling her that Vermouth had found the bug and destroyed it.

"Kudou-kun, do you any idea what this means? If she knows then we are as good as dead!" Haibara hissed at him, making sure to keep her voice as low as possible in case of being further compromised.

"Yeah I get it! Don't rush in, but if you're so worried why didn't you just wait in the car?" Conan talked back in a not so kind manner. All his anger aim at being cut off while they were finally talking about something useful. Really useful.

"That would just make me worry more, idiot. Besides I need to monitor you to make sure you don't do anything rash," Haibara reminded him once more.

"So what now? Shouldn't we leave, we're caught you know. And who knows who else is behind those doors." Haibara said warily with hints of fear seeping through her voice now and then.

"Not yet! I'm close, so close! We can't leave now!" Conan argued, but still managing to keep a level head as he didn't once raise his voice to be heard by anyone other than him and Haibara.

"Well, either we leave now or get killed before you can even find anything of help." Haibara nodded her head at the door that was slowly opening containing many of the Organization's members. Conan tsked in frustration as he and Haibara quickly made their way to their planned out escape route should anything bad happen.

 _I think I understand a little more about Kid and he intricate escape plans,_ Conan thought with a little smirk snaking its way onto his lips unbeknownst to him. Somehow the thought of the thief had made him feel a little better but he brushed it aside paying it no mind.

In front of him Haibara had already made her escape as a thought hit Conan, perfect, he grinned a little as he made a mad dash to a desolate hallway, finding who he deduced would be there.

"Oh, Silver bullet-kun, what a surprise," Vermouth smirked showing only mockery on her expression as she carefully watched Conan from the corner of her eye. It may not seem like it, but she took the boy very seriously knowing full well how dangerous he can actually be.

"Save it," Conan growled taking a few deep breaths to regulate his breathing from the running he did. _I wouldn't even have to deal with this if I had longer legs,_ he thought to himself with a slight frown.

"You have questions for me," Vermouth noted knowingly as she waited for Conan to spout whatever inquiries he had.

"Then, answer me this," Conan said slowly his azure sapphire eyes watching her movements carefully, "do you or do you not know who Rum is."

Vermouth laughed, or rather she scoffed disbelievingly, "to think you would ask me something like this. All I can say is that there are only two in the world who know the identity of Rum. I'm not in that circle." She smiled a little mysteriously letting Conan absorb in the information.

"Then, why did you purposely wait for me here, and why tell me you had a secret meeting here. What are you playing at?"

"If I told you it would take the fun out of the game," Vermouth smirked again in a mysterious manner. "But you heard enough, I'm sure you have plans to stop their next mission, Gin and Vodka's that is." She turned to look at the smaller boy whose eyes had glazed over in bright determination as if to accept her challenge.

The smirk never left Vermouth's lips as she left but not before tossing a flash drive to Conan who expertly caught it. In the small moment that he had taken his eyes off of watching her carefully to catch the object, Vermouth had disappeared.

Grumbling in disapproval of himself for letting her get away once more, he looked at the object in his hands as if it were a ticking time bomb. He didn't trust Vermouth, but right now her actions were confusing him more than any mystery he had solved so far and he deemed it worthy to look into more.

 _She's definitely going off on her own again,_ Conan deduced as he thought back to all of Vermouth's recent activities of the past weeks so far.

Outside, Haibara stood in front of the yellow beetle glaring at Conan who leisurely took his time walking towards the parked car.

"And where have you been?" She asked him matter of factly as Conan grinned sheepishly in response. If the Organization doesn't kill him, Haibara was just about ready to as her expression show the malice shining in her eyes.

"Just around," he answered vaguely diving straight for the car and Haibara had no choice but to follow in intent on finishing her interrogation of one Edogawa Conan who had a lot of explaining to do.

"You must be incredibly idiotic," she said sternly, voice showing no room for arguments as she slammed the door as she got in the car. Professor Agasa didn't say a word as he just drove them back to his home, not wanting to upset Haibara any further than she was.

"Look, I got something useful okay," Conan put both his hands up in protest showing his sincerity.

"And what if Gin had-"

"He wasn't there," Conan interrupted her feeling the need to give her some sort of ease in knowing that one of the most dangerous men of the Organization was not there when they were.

At this, Haibara sighed in slight defeat but she still berated Conan for acting so rash in the first place. Later when they came back to Professor Agasa's house, Conan gave Haibara the flashdrive Vermouth had given him earlier that day.

"What do you suppose it is?" Conan asked as Haibara looked at it suspiciously, similar to how Conan had regarded it when it had been tossed to him.

"Only one way to find out," Haibara said with a worried tone in her voice. Making sure that her computer couldn't be traced -thanks to one of the Professor's genius inventions- she plugged in the drive and all three gasped in shock and amazement at what popped up.

"This...is...exactly what I needed to further my development for the antidote!" Haibara exclaimed unsure of how she should be feeling at the moment. Unsure of why Vermouth had even bothered to help her, but then it struck her, it definitely want her who Vermouth was helping, it was Conan, or more specifically, Kudou Shinichi.

"Then...does that mean you can make a permanent one?" Conan asked his blue azure eyes shining with hope as he places both hands on her shoulders giving it a firm squeeze. She had to smile a little at him, the poor boy had been so depressed over his situation as of late but she still didn't want to give him false hope.

"It's a step forward, but nothing is set in stone yet." Haibara said seriously but as consoling as she could make herself sound hoping Conan took comfort in knowing that.

For a long while he didn't say a word but slowly he nodded accepting the fact, "okay." Was the only word he said before leaving Haibara to work on all the newfound data.

As he exited the lab with Professor Agasa, a final thought ran through his mind. _And now, to come up with a plan to stop the assassination._

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 **A/N:** Thank you for reading this chapter and I hoped you guys liked it! Chapter fourteen will be up soon as well!

Is Vermouth confusing anyone? Don't worry, I know she's very OOC right now but it will make some sense in the future.

And of course, thank you for reading and reviewing!


	16. Chapter 14

**WARNINGS:** A spoiler about a certain character of you're not caught up with the manga/anime. Also mild language.

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"By the way Kudou-kun, what was it that you didn't tell me yesterday that had you so serious?" Haibara asked Conan as she walked with him to school that morning.

Conan looked at her quizzically before realization dawned on him about what Haibara was talking about exactly. "Ah, that," he said, "I heard Vodka mention that Anokata had sent them to assassinate an arms company president. Apparently it's to happen three days from now." The look on his face showed that he intended on stopping them and had already done some research on who the target was.

She didn't want Conan to dabble in any more Organization related events but she knew that she can't stop him from saving a life if he could.

"And what do you plan to do great detective?" She asked her curiosity showing as well as the tone of her voice showing that Conan shouldn't do anything more to compromise his identity.

"Stop them. But you have a point, I shouldn't show myself more than I have too. So I have to do this in a secret way that it won't be traced back to me in any way." Conan said seriously his bright eyes dimming as he began formulating a plan to foil the Organization. And by him he meant Shinichi, not Conan.

Haibara nodded, a little satisfied with Conan's answer as she herself was in a bit of high spirits having nearly completed another prototype antidote for the APTX 4869. It wasn't the one that she had gotten yesterday but the one that she had been developing for weeks now. The one she had been working on when Conan had asked about her progress weeks before. However she didn't relay any of this information to Conan just yet as he would just eagerly ask for it and not use it wisely.

In class, they met up with the other three kids at the school gate and headed in together. Conan again sat with a bored expression as he already knew the material that was currently being taught to them. He really wish that right now at this moment he could be at Teitan High School instead with his own classmates and friends. Well, actually he didn't have many friends his age other than Ran, Hattori, and Haibara. But still, he wanted to be there and not here.

Deciding that rather than doing nothing while the teacher lectured about materials he had no interest in, he'd rather plan something to stop the Organization from committing their latest crimes instead. So plan he did and hoped that this would work out well for him and the victim.

Later on in the day, after he and the Mouris have eaten dinner he set about with a notepad and jotted down his ideas, mainly because Kogoro was watching more Okino Yoko reruns and Ran was studying for a test, so he had no one to talk to at the moment. And Kogoro wasn't much of a good conversationalist anyways Conan mused to himself with a slight smirk that was barely visible.

Conan knew that he somehow had to get the police involved not only because the Organization was going to be there but also because the weapons company president had been smuggling illegal weapons overseas.

He stayed thinking about everything late into the night until his minuscule body couldn't take the strain of staying awake any longer and fell asleep.

He woke the next morning to Ran's cooking like usual, and once they had finished eating, Conan and Ran headed to school just like usual. Last night he had developed a plan to stop them, but he needed help from the FBI rather than the regular police this time.

 _Now to just get in contact with them,_ Conan thought to himself knowing just the person to ask for assistance. _I better find a way to ditch everyone after school though,_ Conan conversed with himself knowing that if he hinted anything than the three kids would tag along with him. Not only could he not allow it for their safety, but they would also get in his way.

Conan had long arrived at the elementary school and was now seated at his desk listening halfheartedly to the newest Kamen Yaiba episode, a show that seemed to be really popular to the kids in this day and age.

"Hey let's go over to Agasa Hakase's house today!" Ayumi said suddenly bringing Conan out of his plannings and thought. _Oh shit! No don't!_ He thought frantically even though his expression was passive and unreadable.

Haibara however took noticed and knew that it was up to her to save Conan once again.

"Sorry guys today the Professor is really busy and I have a lot of work around the house to do too so maybe next time." She said giving them an apologetic smile.

"Awe but Ai-chan we can help if you're busy!" Ayumi said and turning to the boys she asked, "right guys?"

"Yeah! We'll definitely help!" Mitsuhiko said determined. And Genta nodded, "count on us!"

"Conan-kun?" Ayumi turned to him hopefully, "what about you? You're definitely coming to right?"

Conan remained silent mulling over his thoughts before saying, "not today, Haibara already said that she's busy today don't inconvenience her more." _By coming over and being a bother,_ he added silently in his thoughts.

"But…"Ayumi started looking at both Conan and Haibara sadly but the two shrunken teens just shook their heads as if to tell her not to press the matter any further.

Before anyone could say more the teacher came back from break and that ended their recess and everyone went back to sitting in the respective seats.

As soon as class was over, Conan stood straight up and headed to his destination. He really wished he'd done this sooner mainly because he needed the time to get his plan perfectly set up. This wasn't his last chance to capture Gin and Vodka but it was a chance nonetheless and he wanted to take it.

About halfway down the block away from school, Conan stopped making Haibara nearly bump into him as they of course were headed in the same direction although she didn't really know any of his plans yet.

"What a shitty job at tailing someone," Conan muttered under his breath as he called out aloud, "there's no point in hiding, I know you guys are there."

Slowly, three heads popped out from behind a tree. And slowly the children walked out looking sheepish as being caught.

"Didn't we say we didn't have time to play today?" Haibara asked them seriously. Even if she hadn't an idea of what Conan was doing or planning she was dead serious on never letting the kids near anything Black Organization related, ever.

The three actual children seem to shrink at Haibara's intense glare neither of them brave enough to say anything as they were afraid they would make her even more angry than current.

"Seriously, today just go home." Conan said after he had counted backwards from ten to keep his cool. He seemed to be doing that a lot these last few days he mused to himself. He didn't have time for games, especially with these kids who seem to have trouble following them a lot.

"Haibara, I'm heading home first," he nodded to her, the seriousness in his eyes showed that they didn't have time to be humoring the curious yet somewhat annoying, even if their intentions are good, kids at the moment. She nodded in understanding and Conan took off with a slight run before slowing down when he was a few blocks away.

Soon he came to where he needed to be. His actual home the Kudou mansion. Subaru Okiya had been living there for awhile as his home had burned down and there was something about the man that made Conan trust him and he was right.

And now, he needed some help from the very man in question. Glad to see that he was home, Conan invited himself in, it was his house after all.

"Subaru-san? You here?" Conan called out, as he changed his shoes to a pair of oversized slippers at the front door.

A head peeked out from inside the library as the man smiled at the little boy that had just entered his temporary home.

"Ah Conan-kun, what brings you here?" He asked stepping out from the library as Conan smiled innocently up at him.

"Just a small little favor," he said with a slight smirk and eyes that showed too much knowledge for a child of 7 years.

Subaru nodded indicating that he was willing to listen to Conan's request. And he listened, nodding here and there.

"You are aware that what you did was completely rash and dangerous," he said at last after Conan had related to him of the past events of the week.

"I'm aware," Conan grinned childishly, but quickly molded his expression into a very serious one, "so what do you say?" He asked in regards to his request.

"Consider it done," Subaru said and then smirked in a knowing manner similar to Conan's, "Detective Kudou-kun."

"Very funny," Conan returned the smirked and got up to leave, having done all he could for now. "Then I'll leave it to you, Akai-san." He returned the taunt and left his home to go back to the Mouri Detective Agency.

"Conan where have you been?" Ran asked immediately and worriedly the moment Conan stepped into the living space above the agency.

 _Shit! I forgot to text her!_ Conan thought frowning inwardly at himself. He had been so caught up with talking to Subaru and thinking about the Organization that he forgot Ran tended to worry about him more often as of late.

"I'm sorry," he said in a guilty childish manner, "I went to the library and forgot to tell you." He looked at her with nearing to teary eyes for good measure.

Seeing that Conan didn't mean to worry her like that, she smiled and forgave him but not before adding, "just don't forget next time okay Conan-kun."

He made a sound of agreement and then ate a late dinner as he hadn't gotten around to that just yet.

"Jodie-kun, what is your position status?" James Black, head of hunting down the Black Organization in Japan, asked from where he had positioned himself.

"I have Vodka in my sight," she answered, her light blue eyes gleamed dangerously behind her glasses.

"Capture him," James ordered, as he and the rest of his team worked on locating Gin. _He's definitely here somewhere,_ James thought determined looking through all the footage in front of him.

Jodie made her move having gotten the target away and locked up -for illegal smuggling of weapons overseas- safely away from the Organizations grasps.

Now was just a game of cat and mouse as they chased down the Organization's members.

Thanks to an anonymous tip, although James knew who it was, they caught wind of the Organization's newest plan and were able to thwart them.

"Aniki," Vodka said relieved as he pulled up in a black Porsche saving his partner from capture from the FBI.

"There's definitely a rat in our midst," Gin growled lowly, his dark green eyes practically glowed with a murderous aura vowing to kill whoever it was that brought the FBI to ruin their plans.

"That time at the Haido Hotel too," Vodka noted, about 20 of the Organization's lower ranking members had been caught by the police that day but strangely enough their meeting had not been compromised in any way.

Gin didn't say a single word as he crushed his half smoked cigarette between his teeth and escaped from the following cars behind him.

"Damn it! We lost him!" Jodie slam the dashboard in anger as Agent Camel halted the car they were in having lost sight of Gin's Porsche.

"Sorry, I couldn't keep up," agent Camel said apologetically as he was equally frustrated in himself for losing sight of the car.

As James walked back to his own car admitting defeat in losing the Organization's top two members, he said silently to himself, _"thank you, cool guy, for the tip."_

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 **A/N:** Okay well thank you for reading, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter as well and as for chapter 15, it is still in progress. There are still some things that I'm over at the moment but I hope to have it out as soon as I can. Also a small note: Conan/Shinichi is who cool guy is.

Another thing, I'm sorry for butchering Akai's, Jodie's and James' characters.

But please do leave a review as I really appreciate them and thanks so much again for reading my story so far.

See you all in chapter 15!


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